Brian Terence Mullally

 (Retired real estate broker, former owner of Aquarius Pools and accomplished author) Brian left us suddenly at the Northumberland Hills Hospital on Saturday July 18th, 2015 in his 87th year. Beloved husband and soul mate of Maureen Mullally (nee Sedgwick) for 64 enchanted years; a dedicated and exemplary family man who made it all look easy, loving father of Lindy Small (George), Guy Mullally, Toby Mullally (Sharon), Rita Peters (Frank) and Terry Mullally, dear grandfather of Roslyn Weir (Jon), Bronwyn Small, Grant Peters (Allia Mohamed), Derek Peters, Minnie Mullally, Kitty Mullally, Gabriel Mullally and Paloma Mullally and great grandfather of Adelaide Weir. Brian is survived by his brother Ken Mullally (Gitta), brother-in-law John Sedgwick (Maria) and sister-in-law Sandra Derjugin (Peter). Brian always said that what goes up must come down, but he never did, soaring ever higher until the very end. Born in Croydon, England, he came to Canada and tried on many hats until he found the one that he was born to wear. He will be remembered for his charm and honesty, his spirit and love of life, for his sense of humour, his accomplishments and compassion for the human condition captured and brought to life in the words and stories that he wrote. Friends are invited to attend a celebration of Brian’s life on Sunday August 30th, 2pm at the MacCoubrey Funeral Home, 30 King St., E., Cobourg. Friends are asked to gather at the funeral home in the hour prior to Brian’s Celebration of Life, to meet with the family. If desired donations may be made to the Northumberland Hills Hospital. Condolences received at www.MacCoubrey.com.   “Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries” That’s the song he’d sing when he was happy, which was most of the time.  Brian’s wife, Maureen, would often say that you can be anything you want to be and she should know.  She was married to Brian for 64 years, met him when he was 19, and she has lived and enjoyed the proof of it.  Brian could and did do everything he set his mind to and he did it all very well.  Perhaps that was the secret to his happiness. Brian was born in Croydon, England on February 27, 1929.  Six months later the stock market crashed and the world was plunged into the Great Depression, followed closely by World War II.  It was a turbulent beginning for the eldest son of Minnie and Cyril, (a second son, Brian’s dear brother, Ken, would arrive 11 years later).  Minnie and Cyril taught their son to be grateful for what he had and not to expect a great deal more.  Brian was a realist, but he was also an eternal optimist.  He always focused on the positive and the endless possibilities.  As a young boy, he loved school; loved to learn, read books and dream about far away places.  At the age of 12 he witnessed the battle of Britain over the streets of London and imagined being a fighter pilot.  Unfortunately for him, perhaps less so for those of us who wouldn’t be here without him, the war ended before he was old enough to enlist.  But as a young man in war torn London he set his sights on a different goal. Following two years of compulsory military service he joined British Airways as an air steward and set out to see the world, travelling through parts of Europe, Africa and the middle and far east all the way to Australia in fabled Sunderland Flying Boats that took off and landed on water.  Converted from military to passenger service after the war, Sunderlands had a maximum flying speed of 210 mph and a range of 3000 miles.  It often took days to reach the destination with stopovers all along the way to take in the sights and plant indelible memories of the world in the late 1940’s-the destruction of the war, the rebuilding and hope for the future. Back home on Christmas Eve 1948, Brian met Maureen Sedgwick at the Streatham Locarno, one of the grand London dance halls of the day.  It was a night of magic, love was in the air, a love that grew and grew and blossomed into a great tapestry that was to become for both of them their greatest masterpiece.  Brian and Maureen married on June 2, 1951 at Croydon Parish Church, and in a city still recovering and rebuilding after Hitler’s relentless six year bombing campaign - a time when most young, married couples were forced to live with their parents - they were fortunate to find a small apartment. For a year or so, Brian continued flying, but when the children began to arrive, Lindy in '53, Guy in '54 , he took a series of jobs to be close to his family.  He worked in a plastics factory, sold furniture on weekends, then he sold bicycles and finally lawn mowers while Maureen worked as a hairdresser.  Times were tough.  They gave up their small apartment to Maureen’s grandmother and moved in first with Maureen’s parents and then with Brian’s until it became clear to both of them that it was time for a new adventure, something big. The advertisements were everywhere: Come to Canada.  Land of endless opportunity, jobs for everyone.  Brian sailed 3rd class on the Queen Elizabeth along with hundreds of other immigrants and arrived in Toronto via New York on June 2, 1954 to stake his claim in the new world.  It was his third wedding anniversary, he was 25 with ten dollars and a little book in his pocket; “Five Acres and Independence”, that was the plan, and he joined the endless line of fellow immigrants that snaked around the building hoping for one of the promised jobs.  When he finally got to the front of the line, they put his name on the list with all the others.  Never shy about coming forward, Brian put on his only suit and landed a job humping potatoes in the St. Lawrence Market.  A short distance away on notorious Jarvis Street, he found a room and worked for three long months to earn passage for his family to join him and to find a home for them all to live in.  Of all their years together, those three months would turn out to be the longest time that Brian and Maureen would ever be apart from one another and it was not without temptation. One day Brian found a wallet with a substantial amount of money.  Oh, how he could use that money, but Brian was always honest.  He turned the wallet in -“honesty is its own reward”, he’d tell his kids.  And sometimes the reward is a little more tangible.  By the time Maureen and the babies arrived in Canada on September 17, Brian had been promoted to payroll clerk and had saved enough money to rent the upstairs of a house in New Toronto.  It was their first home in Canada and it was right in the path of Hurricane Hazel that blew through town a month later.  Brian and Maureen survived the windy welcome and after a brief stint as a dispatcher for a trucking company, Brian got a job at Avro doing “important work”- counting nuts and bolts - on the ill-fated Arrow.  Although he worked at Avro for barely a year, Canada’s first supersonic jet fighter would have a major impact on his life in the very near future.  Brian left Avro to try his hand at real estate.  Times were good, the economy was growing and new housing developments were popping up everywhere.  Shortly after Toby was born (1957), Brian and Maureen bought their first home in Oakville.  Two years later they sold that house and moved to a new development in Milton.  Brian got his insurance broker’s licence and started selling insurance as well as houses.  He had an office and a staff of two people.  Another baby, Rita was born in 1959.  Another new housing development was planned.  Brian would sell them all.  The future seemed certain and golden.  Then, the government cancelled the Avro Arrow, almost 30,000 people were suddenly out of work and the real estate market collapsed like a house of cards.  The job required a university degree, but that didn’t stop Brian.  He needed a job, needed to get on with his life and find a new home for his growing family of six.  The phone rang.  Texaco liked him, the job was his.  Sales Rep-he’d talked his way into it.  Charming, engaging and attentive, Brian knew how to talk to people and knew how to listen.  Natural skills that he continued to hone all his life.   If anyone could sell sea shells on the beach, it was Brian.  That was his job with Texaco – pushing product, pumping up the brand.  He was responsible for a number of service stations within an area and it was all about managing people, earning their trust and facilitating their needs.  Brian thrived.  He had a company car and ten dollar expense account.  He moved his family to Pond Mills, Ontario, a beautiful house in the country on the outskirts of London where they put the final touch to their family with son number three, Terry (1963) and added a dog to the clan.  London was Brian’s turf and he did such a good job of boosting sales that Texaco transferred him to Toronto two years later, but having developed a taste for country life, Brian managed to find a farmhouse in Scarborough to rent surrounded by empty fields – that quickly gave way to housing developments during his two year stint in Hogtown.  Once again sales soared and Brian was promoted to Supervisor based out of Port Hope.  Time to move again, but it was a dream come true – a farmhouse in the country once again surrounded by fields, but fields of wheat and barley, alfalfa and corn this time.  The farmhouse was on a working farm with cows and horses, chickens, goats and pigs.  Brian took a breath, looked around and realized that this was the perfect place to raise his family.  By this time much of his extended family had followed his lead and moved to Canada – Maureen’s parents, Harold and Gwen, her brother John and sister Sandy.  Brian’s brother, Ken, had also made the journey and in a few years after the death of his father, Brian’s mother Minnie would join them as well.  All would eventually find what he had found – a new place to call home.  Brian and Maureen found a piece of land – 20 acres, half wooded, on the side of hill and decided to build a house – and oh what a house it would be – four bedrooms, two bathrooms, finished basement with a double garage, circular driveway and a swimming pool.  A barn was later added for the chickens, goats, horses and goose.  They had it made and they knew it – “Five Acres and Independence” indeed: their very own country home.  How far had they travelled to arrive to this? Those were heady days.  Brian left Texaco when they promoted him to District Manager and transferred him to Halifax.  No thanks, he said, this is my home and he started a swimming pool company – a family business.  It was 1971 and new, affordable vinyl liner in-ground swimming pools were all the rage.  Aquarius Pools – his daughters worked the store, his sons ran the crews and Brian kept the whole thing running smoothly – more or less – by doing what he did best – finding the customers, listening to their stories, earning their trust, delivering on his promises and backing up his product.  Eighteen years went by.  The kids grew up and left town, the country home was empty without them, the family business had had its day.  It was time for a change, time to move on.  Brian joined Maureen in real estate and together they sold their share of homes and properties in Cobourg, Port Hope and surrounding area.  They met a lot of people, heard a lot of stories and became a part of the community.  They built a new dream house on five acres of land in Baltimore and considered retirement.  They took up hobbies – painting toy soldiers, historical scenes and figures until their basement looked like a museum of ancient and modern history.  Brian tired his hand at woodwork and turned out rocking horses for his grandchildren that Maureen painted.  They gardened, Maureen painted pictures, Brian started mapping the family genealogy and that changed everything.  In 1992 Brian and Maureen sold their dream home in favour of a small bungalow on a large treed lot in a new development on the outskirts of Cobourg and Brian began to do what he had always wanted to do, what he was very probably born to do.  He started writing.  He had so many stories to tell, so many anecdotes and insights into human nature, an incredible treasure trove of memories and experiences to share.  But first he had to learn how to write, he had to find a voice and learn to express in words all the fantastic things he had experienced in his life.  At 63 he was starting late, but that only made him keener. He took writing courses, joined writers’ clubs and wrote stories – dozens and dozens of stories, rewriting them over and over again until the characters leapt from the page and the dialogue sparkled.  He sent them off to contests around the world.  Then he wrote more stories and the more he wrote the better he got and the more he had to say.  In all he wrote three books, published two as well as a book of short stories and contributions to three other anthologies of short stories.  Not to mention the dozens of stories and the autobiography he was working on when he left his desk.  This is the legacy he left behind for us – his life, his stories, the world as he saw it in all its brilliant shapes and colours.  Learning how to write, how to tell a story, how to captivate and move people is Brian’s gift to those he leaves behind.  His work reveals his compassion, his sense of humour, his depth and understanding of the human condition.  It is as alive as he was and will remain for all who read it.  Brian Mullally, writer, salesman, entrepreneur; son, brother, lover, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather; a daring adventurer who took risks and defied odds, who travelled the world on a cork, built castles for his family, who always saw the best in people, always saw the sunshine peeking through on a cloudy day; a man who loved life and lived a life of joy and optimism.