From: Tony Muller
Relation: My Father-in-law

Dad,

Anyone who knew our Dad would know just how much he liked to work in his office on his computer, reading the news, sending emails, preparing his services, making birthday cards and pocket diaries. It wasn’t always so. His love of life, his love of learning and his unfailing connection and compassion for people drove his enthusiastic and unique application of the latest Mac technology.

When I first met Dad, he had a heavy old manual typewriter in the middle of this office desk under the watchful gaze of Queen Victoria’s picture hanging above. Sometimes the keys would interlock or stick before striking the page. The ribbon would jump around, occasionally there would be a touch of red on the black letters on the page, or a hole in the page where the stop should have been. One year, Jane and I upgraded him to an electric typewriter we bought on sale at Costco. He did not have to hit the keys as hard as on the manual typewriter, but he did anyway. He prepared many of his services on these old typewriters, sometimes typing them many times over because of silly spelling mistakes or left out words. When he thought the service was done he would pass it to Mom (Ruth) to read over. Often she would find something to add or another spelling or grammatical error. Dad would type the service over again. He would tell me this is how he learnt his service so he did not have to look down too frequently while delivering it.

In the early 90’s I was offered a job in Australia. I managed to convince Jane that I should upgrade our computer from a Mac SE to the new Macintosh II model, larger screen, more RAM, faster processor and larger hard drive. The week before we were to leave for Australia Mom and Dad came to stay with us in Gibsons. I explained to Dad my reasons for buying the new computer and he nodded quietly. When I finished explaining he asked, “What are you going to do with the old one?” To which I replied that I was going to ask him if he would store it for us while we were away adding, “You can use it if you like”.

I took Dad upstairs and showed him how to plug the mouse into the keyboard, the keyboard and printer into the computer, plug the power cord into the computer and where to turn it on. Everything plugged into the back of the computer including the switch to turn it on. I showed him how to open up a word processing application and type a few words, save it, print it and the process to shut down the computer. In less than half and hour he had the Mac SE packed up in its carry bag and tucked away in his truck and off they went home.

The first thing he did on arriving in Princeton was to go into the garage and make a table with a pull-out drawer for the keyboard and mouse. He attached a shelf above for the Mac laser printer. He soon had the computer table varnished, in his office and started working on his first service. At first he used it just like a typewriter but got more adventurous as he gained more confidence in its uses. On the front of his services he liked to have the titles in larger font and a picture of some sort. He would print up the front page and walk down to Pharmasave to enlarge the type on their photocopier before glueing it to the front page and photocopying it again.

He was so happy with his productions and keen to show them to me when we came home for our first break. I said “Dad you can do all that on the computer and save yourself a walk”. “I can??” said Dad. I showed him how it was done, he never looked back. I also showed him a way where he could just type out his service and then break it up into the different pages to make up his booklets, print up multiple copies etc. Then he wanted to know how to feather edge his pictures to go on the front. There were no end of ideas he had to make his service booklets look better. Often Mom would add her touch with a 4 leaf clover or dried wild rose.

Any computer glitch stopped everything in the house. The computer would be packed up with Mom and Dad in the truck driving to Penticton to the Mac Doctor. Mark and Charmaine Lewis were a great support resource, patiently answering all Dad’s questions and getting his computer up and running again. Sometimes updating the system and programs on the computer. They knew just how much Dad relied on his computer. Soon they were able to upgrade Dad to a new computer and over the years he has had many more.

Dad no longer had to walk down to the Pharmasave photocopier with change in his pockets. His old typewriter was positioned on a cardboard box upstairs for filling in forms. He did not quite master that on the computer! Life changed for Dad, he was always learning new things on the computer and I think it was for the better. I was always amazed by some of his creations.

Last year he called me on the phone and said “I see I bought this computer on Feb 13, 2013, so it is 9 years old now! On the internet is says that it is getting to the end of its life. Could you please go and buy me a new one!” The new iMac is more brightly coloured, blue instead of grey, with more RAM, faster processor, more memory and larger hard drive, but cost the same as the old one 9 years ago!!

Till the very end Dad was very attached to his iMac, creating birthday cards, reading the news, sending out emails daily, checking his banking, paying bills and even starting on his 2024 pocket diaries. His iMac was used to his fullest imagination.

Life was never dull with you in our lives Dad and we will miss you tremendously as we continue on.

Love Tony