Vanindar Singh Dhillon

Justin S Gill
I have so many good memories of my uncle. He pretty much laid out the roadmap to my life and I have tried my best to mirror him as I grow older and wiser. I really wish I could have had more time with him and gone on more adventures together like old times. We would go visit him on weekends and I learned to do landscaping work with him in his yard. He had a beautiful home in Oak Bay that overlooked the Yacht club and ocean. I would mow his lawn once in a while because his yard was the size of a football field in my eyes and I enjoyed it with his self propelled lawnmower. He taught everything I know about gardening and plants. Uncle at one point had a tree swing in his yard that my brother and I would play on but it was taken down many years later in my childhood. I have memories of waking up some mornings to several deer in his yard roaming about and the smile he had on his face was warming and positive. My uncle and aunt had a seagull that would come visit every day in the mornings for breakfast and I fondly remember my aunt would feed the seagull bread and I remember how happy my uncle would be seeing his bird friend. It’s the simple things I remember doing with him that really drew me to admire him as an important person in my life and he has taught me so much about the real world when we were growing up and I looked up to him. Movie nights were especially fun with my uncle at his place because my aunt would make us popcorn and treats for the movie. My uncle would take us for a fun drive to the movie store which at the time was called Blockbuster Videos. He would take us for a stroll through Ross Bay Cemetery before going across the street to pick out a scary movie to watch. It was always a thrill to watch movies at his house because he had created a theatre room for everyone to enjoy at his house that made it evermore exciting. There are endless good memories with my uncle and aunt at their place. I remember how calm he was at heart. A prime example of this is when we would play butter fingers in his winding driveway by his cars. From time to time, I would lose my grip on the basketball or throw it goofy and it would hit his Mercedes or even end up on his roof and he wouldn’t flinch or bat an eye. He would tell us not to do it again and help us retrieve the ball to keep playing. In that sense, he was a simple man who did not get frustrated easily and always looked at the positive things in any given situation. I could go on and on about all the fun filled adventures we went on with uncle but I’d run out of space to type. I really wish I had more time with him as I miss him a lot. I hope wherever he is now, that he is smiling and still going on adventures as he LOVED doing that. We even had a bucket list of things to do that we made with him over a decade ago. I’m proud to say that most of what was on that list had been done and it makes my heart feel full. You lived a long life and made my childhood and adulthood an exciting, memorable time and I thank you for that. I’ll come visit you in all the places you took us in our childhood.
I miss you uncle and love you man!