Sean

We all have friends. But most have only a few people that we truly can count on to be there no matter what.

Today’s blog is about Sean. Sean is one of the most dynamic people you will ever meet. I had the pleasure of meeting him in the Winter of 1995. He was fresh from the coast. He joined our crew having left home with nothing, leaving his family and a girlfriend that had broken his heart behind. He was 20, I was 21.

We had a lot in common, both from large families, both broke; We didn’t drink or do drugs like everyone else on the crew, we instantly became friends. A fun night for us was scrounging around for loose change, walking to the Marlborough theatre, and catching a 2$ movie often at the expense of food.

Seam was and is the hardest working guy I’ve ever met. On top of that he was the most ambitious. I have memories of him working in -25 with a t shirt on, running around carrying lumber. We didn’t try to meet girls, we couldn’t buy them anything and usually we had no money for gas. We certainly never had clean clothes. Neither of the rooms we rented had access to laundry. We would listen to Red, a fellow worker brag about all the wild times with girls he had as we’d sit there looking over the Calgary Sun for movie times.

I remember driving down Memorial Drive in the rustiest S10 truck you could imagine, two girls in a small sports car pulled up beside us. They motioned to me to roll my window down. Still kind of shocked that these girls wanted to talk to us I did nothing.

“Roll your window down!” Sean said.

But as I tried, the handle broke. I held up the broken handle and showed it to the girl. She laughed and sped off. Me and Sean looked at each other and burst into laughter. This was always our luck.

Over the years we worked together on and off. When I started my first framing crew with my Brother as a partner, Sean helped us get on our feet, often sacrificing his own plans to be there for us.

We had a falling out in our late twenties. I can’t even remember why, like always, it was over something stupid, I know I was in the wrong.

A few years passed, Sean phoned me and invited me to his wedding. I was asked to stand for him. Anyone that knows me knows I’m not the most reliable person to show up to an event. I remember waking up one morning with the feeling I had missed something. I asked my partner to check the fridge and tell me the date of Sean’s wedding. It was that day and I was a province away.

I was pretty sure that was the end of our friendship, till my doorbell rang and Sean with his new wife Elle were standing there. They took time to come see me, on their honeymoon. That is unbelievable to me. Humbling.

Years later a recession wiped him out. He had built an amazing Home Building Company but no one was surviving this recession (2006) who wasn’t backed by serious money. Sean came to work with me. He was away from his family, kids, working for peanuts with me. There was no way we could ever earn enough to get him out of the hole he was in.

One day at work he’d had enough and snapped. I decided we needed to go for lunch and regroup. On our way to lunch he tried to clear the window with washer fluid. It didn’t work. This was the final straw, he ripped the indicator off the steering wheel, wound down his window and threw it out. “What’s left to go wrong” he yelled at God, “I can’t take anymore!” We sat there for a second in silence as we drove, then a humming sound began as the pump started spraying the windows. Sean reached for his indicator arm to wipe the windows…. I snickered, the indicator arm was laying in the road behind us. Again, we burst into laughter.

If you’ve ever watched the movie “Into the Wild” you’ve met Sean.

He’s crazy. In the time I’ve known him he’s earned and lost fortunes, disappeared into the North for a summer, jumped onto a ranch in Montana, he has jumped out of airplanes in Cowboy boots and coveralls. He has willingly put himself within feet of grizzly bears, plays poker like he does life, All in. All the time. He’s not afraid to risk it all, he will do it without a second thought. If he fails, he just rolls up his sleeves and starts again. He recently wrote a book, the last I heard it was selected to be published.

We’ve been friends for 25 years. I know we will be friends for 25 more. I owe him a lot. By then he might be homeless, or he could be worth millions. The thing about Sean is whether he’s on top or starting over, he is always the same guy. Sean will give you his last 5$ if he thought you wanted it. Through the years we are always a province apart. Neither of us will ever retire, so my hope is one day we will be two old men, working together again. We will be building something cool together, laughing.

If you read this far, thank you

Tris