Ros's birthday

The friendship Ros and I forged as reporters at The Vancouver Sun  decades ago is still going strong. I took this photo of her at Cardero's restaurant in Vancouver this summer when she was visiting from Mexico. 

Look at the intensity reporter Ros brings to this discussion with deskers John Olding (left, standing), Scott Macrae (standing), and Pete Louden (seated) on the first day of the Vancouver Express newspaper on Nov. 1, 1978. The Express brought together  Sun and Province employees to put out a paper while we were locked out by Pacific Press. Ros and I both wrote for the Express; she also sold the finished product on the street. Photo by John Denniston. www.johndenniston.ca

Friendships form in many ways, but for Ros and me, it always goes back to a scene in the old Vancouver Sun newsroom at Sixth and Granville. The setting was the city desk, presided over by the night city editor and his assistant. The time was the end of a night shift on a Friday. The occasion was a colleague being feted on his or her departure for a job elsewhere in the country (newspapers were booming, jobs were plentiful). The funds would have been collected, the wine bottles would have rattled in, the cheese and crackers would have been laid out. With reporters and editors congregating at the city desk, the party would begin.

But off in the background, two people would still be labouring away at their stories, loath to hand them in until they were done to their satisfaction. And they weren't quite there. . .yet.

Ros and I may have mystified others, but to us, missing a party in the service of a better story made perfect sense. Ros went on to the CBC and to teach journalism, while I stayed at The Sun reporting and editing; but our understanding of each other from those early days formed the basis of a friendship that has continued through the years.

I'm thinking of Ros and the beginnings of our friendship because it's her birthday on Wednesday (the 21st). We won't be celebrating together because she's in Mexico, but she's told me her plans: Scrabble and a quiet at-home dinner with her partner. No one should be surprised that I understand that perfectly.

As a former CBC reporter, Ros knows all about the value of visuals. During her visit this summer, she  poses beside a planter of flowers to indulge my need for photos for my blog.