Many years later family still misses Ken
My son, Ken Thompson, was killed by a drunk driver on July 21, 1985.
He was just 21.
People may think that by now I would be over it, but I will never be over it.
I think about Ken every day, I miss him so much.
He was kind, caring and thoughtful and had a great sense of humour. His sister Karen and brother Doug still miss him and so wish he was still with us.
The drunk driver who chose to drink with his pals all morning and didn’t care that he was endangering himself and others when he got behind the wheel of his car was sentenced to nine months in jail, but only served six months.
His driver’s licence was suspended for one year starting when he went to jail.
I often wish a remembrance paper could be produced similar to the one for veterans where people who have suffered a loss by death or an injury because of a drunk driver could tell their story.
Maybe it would make people who have been drinking realize the heartache they can cause when they choose to drive.
Dorothy Percy
Penticton
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Thanks to everyone
On behalf of my daughter, Sheena Dannessa and her family, I would like to express our sincere thanks to the Penticton Fire Department and emergency personnel who attended to our mobile home fire on July 3.
They worked very hard to try to save our home and contents but unfortunately it could not be done.
Thanks to the firemen who went back into our home to try to salvage heirloom items.
Thank you also to Emergency Social Services for their help, to the realtors and staff of Coldwell Banker Okanagan Realty for their generous donation and to our many friends and co-workers for donations and kind thoughts.
It has all been greatly appreciated.
To all our neighbours, many thanks for your outpouring of support especially to Amy and Sabrina when they called on you for help.
We really appreciate your thoughtfulness and ongoing support.
A special thanks to Don Crossman for his efforts in trying to douse the flames and to Dean and Tina for taking in the cat.
Jean Bilozir
Penticton
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Safety not an issue
(re: Dollars over safety, Letters, Western News, July 16)
With regards to Mr. Barillaro’s letter regarding safety issues with the railings at the lakeside project, I feel there aren’t safety issues, but a few small voices wanting to make us live in a bubble of fear.
To the best of my knowledge in the 15 years that I’ve lived here, there have been zero incidents.
Closing in the railings would look horrible, block the view and ruin the beautiful work done.
Kelly David
Penticton
*****
Mulcair claiming both sides of coin
Thomas Mulcair, federal NDP opposition leader wants to someday become the prime minister of Canada, but seems to forget Western Canada is also in Canada.
Thomas Mulcair said, “Allowing super tankers into the Douglas Channel is madness.”
But Mulcair has also said that a west-to-east pipeline is a common sense solution that would create jobs and boost the country’s energy solutions. A definite set of double standards based on the fact for him living in Quebec and what a pipeline would do for Quebec and Quebec only.
He wants the pipeline to run from Alberta to end at a Montreal refinery.
Then shipments can be made by use of the St. Lawrence River, which would require the use of super tankers, which is not madness in Quebec because the Enbridge pipeline is estimated to bring in $80 billion in tax revenue. If Mulcair lived in B.C., once again his opinions would be reversed.
The sad part to all of this, is that Mulcair is paid a taxpayer funded salary of $229,000 per year, for this very poor performance of opinions.
Unbelievable, but true, but then what do you expect from an NDPer?
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan
