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Life Stories

Musings about life… Buddhism, updates on my health, time spent around our gardens in spring, summer and fall, bike rides, new recipes I am trying and other topics that catch my attention.

Life Stories

My Journey with Cancer…

I’ve struggled with sharing this for quite a while now but feel sharing it may be cathartic for me. I feel like I’ve been hiding it from most of my friends so here goes… In May of 2019, Yim…

Life Stories

A Goodbye to my sister, Donna

Memorial to my sister, Donna. California, 2013. — Hello everyone. My name is Steve Roper. Donna was my little sister. And I was lucky enough to know her longer than anyone else here… I am here today to thank…

Life Stories Travel

How did you end up in Belize?

We had told the same story 500 times by now… How had we ended up running a five star resort in Belize was always the question. So one night, I winked at Yim and started off down the plot…

Life Stories

Face meets Sand

We liked to watch the sun rise. I used to get up and stand by the Ocean’s Edge and watch the day break with a nice pink glow over the horizon. This one morning, Yim decided she would come…

Life Stories Travel

Our first day in Belize…

We finally arrived in Maya Beach after our 17 day road trip from Victoria. It was going to be the first night we could stay in our little house by the beach and there it was, with its roof…

Life Stories Travel

Delivering houses from San Ignacio

Our houses were designed as a box with a top basically. A 24 foot by 24 foot square box which was to be delivered to the property on the back of a flatbed truck and hauled through the Maya…

Life Stories Travel

James Bay, Victoria

In September 2000, Yim and I moved to Vancouver Island. I had been headhunted by an advertising agency called Copeland Communications and offered a considerable increase (+25%) in salary over what Chrysler/BBDO had just offered me, for whom I…

Life Stories

Windsor

In the Fall of 1998, I was hired as Creative Director for a division of BBDO in Windsor, Ontario with a mandate of changing the perception of Chrysler Canada. I remember Yim and I had just started dating seriously…