Feb 3 2010: Guido Quer

Last night when I went to bed at around midnight , a host of ambulances and a firetruck parked outside my place. Immediately I thought of my next door neighbour of 30 off and on years when I lived "home" , Guido whom has been having health issues the past few years. It finally caught up to him as he passed away.

Guido was a retired gentleman in his late 70s , immigrated here from Italy and a canadian citizen of 50 years. He is survived by his wife Pina , his two adult daughters , a son in law and two grand sons , also by his siblings whom Im not familiar with.

He worked for the city , he was part of the road crew I think , I remember he would get his truck crew during icy winters and he would shovel salt for the block. SOmething we all took for granted caz without his pull we would be in line with the rest of the smhmucks but Guido always made sure our block was top priority, Well mainly for his kids and wife but we all benefited from his kindness. Even when we had the two can limit for trash , Guido always made sure that his house and ours got unlimited treatment , again , a perk we take for granted.


Guido always took care of our lawn. Mowing our side and weeding our driveway and garden. Seeing he was an avid gardener he really enjoyed it , it was like having a huge yard for him. It didnt go unnoticed , Guido.

I remember he attended my dad's funeral. I remember looking back and Guido stood out in crowd of chinese people , there he was head bowed showing his respect to his fellow immigrant middle class blue collar father. He didnt have to , he didnt know my dad very well but Guido was always about respect and showing it.

I remember when we lost our power for 3 days , Guido let us plug an extension chord into his house and gave us power for bare necessities like a lamp and radio. Thank god we didnt have the electric stove at the time.. or did we? I dont recall. I recall Guido always willing to lend a hand when called upon.


Guido was a sparkling charismatic man , he was a superb father and husband and good all around guy. He always had friends over drinking his wine and eating their food. A man can be judged by the company they share , he had a lot of good friends that stuck by him. Im sure Guido wished he was a little younger so he could play some sports with his grand kids but he probably had the time of his life watching them regardless. I can only imagine Guido's joy in his grand sons.


Guido was the prototype neighbour that we all dream of , that we all want and we dont appreciate until he's gone. I will miss hearing Guido shuffle through his shed at all times of the day and night, we're talking 6am to midnight. I will miss Guido setting up the sprinklers to wet both our yards. I will miss Guido asking if we need anything. I will miss Guido's homemade wine. I will miss Guido. Guido my friend I will forever miss " how you doing young fella!".