Grannie Smith

She wasn't my grandmother, or perhaps anybody's, but she was elderly. She was something of a fixture in Port Coquitlam, in the 1970's and 1980's. She lived with a husband, but by all accounts he was neither faithful nor nice in general.

In the 1970's I lived and grew up in Poco, but I didn't know her then. I met her in the 1980's, when I still made trips there to a few shops I liked (all gone now).

With her house but unpleasant domestic situation, perhaps it was no surprise that Grannie was a bag lady. She went on the 160 bus to Vancouver's skid row, and was well known there, sometimes as somebody helping out, and sometimes as one of the homeless, which she was in her own way.

Opinions about her varied in Poco. When she died, Denny Boyd, a well-known columnist with the Vancouver Sun, devoted his column to her.

There is now Granny Smith Park at the site of her house in downtown Poco.