The chapters and vignettes in this book are very much reflected in my and my wife's life stories, and those of our parents, and grandparents. Our grandparents came to Canada at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the time, more than half the population of Canada lived in small towns and rural communities. Audrey's grandparents ended up in the Okanagan Valley on her father's side and in Alberta on her mother's side. On her father's side, the family faced the racism that was prevalent against anyone coming from Japan in the case of her grandparents and later, racism that all members of the family faced as Japanese Canadians. My grandparents ended up in Toronto and Hamilton. As Jewish immigrants from Germany, Poland, and Russia, they faced the antisemitism of the times even after they and their children (my parents and uncles and aunts) became Canadian citizens.

In his final years, Audrey's father moved back to the Okanagan Valley near where he grew up and where most of Audrey's family still live. Audrey's mother and stepfather aged in place in their home just outside of Kelowna. In recent years, it became apparent that they could no longer look after themselves and now live in assisted living. As their youngest son and after I left for university, my father and mother moved to a new house and lived there until he passed away. Soon after, my mother moved into a community for older people that had apartment buildings, communal dining rooms, various amenities, and a nursing home for those who could no longer live independently. My mother had her own apartment until she could no longer look after herself because of the onset of Alzheimer's disease. She now lives in the nursing home with little or no memory of her past or her current surroundings.

As the third generation, Audrey and I were part of the ‘baby boom’. We were both born in the early 1950s. As part of the baby-boom generation, we took full advantage of all of the opportunities that followed. We received university educations about which our parents could only dream. Eventually, we ended up as tenure-track assistant professors with high-quality pension plans and relatively early entry into an affordable housing market. Today, we are both past the age of 65 and still working as tenured, full professors.