I recently went to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Belfast Road in Ottawa to donate some items (and to check out the used tools). The store is in an industrial building which used to house the automotive machine shop I worked in for the better part of two years in the late 1970s. Whenever I am there my mind floods with memories as I look at the various doorways and loading bays, recalling the bustle of the shop and the colourful characters I worked with.

I left high school with a dismal grade point average. After enrolling to study forestry up north at the Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology and then switching after the first week into a commercial art program, I went through a difficult period of finding my way. I had been much affected by trauma related to the untimely death of my father and the instabilities that ensued. These conspired to persuade me that I would not amount to much. (It is so important to notice changes in the appearance and........

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