When people ask where I grew up, I say, “Cora Brown Subdivision, on Sea Island.” To which they reply, “Where is Sea Island?”
Sea Island is an island at the mouth of the Fraser River, and is now the home of the Vancouver International Airport and McArthur Glen Shopping Centre.
But back in 1946, the Cora Brown Subdivision, with its one-acre plots, became the homes of many of the returning veterans of the Second World War, under the Veterans’ Land Act. My father was one of these soldiers. It was a small community of fifty homes located at the north end of the Island.
Many of the homes were cookie-cutter — identical, two-bedroom, 74 square metres (800 square foot) houses, each with a small living room, a kitchen, bathroom, and…
