SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust T.SRU.UN

RE: To those who remember

[LANNY9]

Hi Bert, Good to here from you, although I wish it was under different circumstances. This may not be the place to do this but I am going to do it anyways. I too was unable to contact Jim in the last few months of his life. I had known he was very sick but he would never let onto me how bad it truly was. I had left a few messages but no response. Jim and I had grown very close and he and I even discussed my buying his business from him so he could retire. I am very saddened by this news as I have lost a very close friend. I had thought he had just decided to retire to take care of his health. He was on my mind and was going to try to call him this past week to touch base with him again. Jim had a very full life, he had seen the very good of this industry and the very bad. He also had a very long period of substance abuse and I am glad to say that he was clean for a very, very long time and took time out of his life on a weekly basis to go to classes to be a mentor to young adults who are trying to get and stay clean. Oh, could Jim tell stories, he and I could spend hours on the phone, him telling me of the wild times that the old VSE was able to give them. The wild trading that happened in the old days, Jim made and had lost a fortune and through it all he remained true to himself and his friends. Although Jim had made some people mad in the last few years(which I think some of that was due to his health conditions) Jim never steered anyone wrong. He was the one who had told us to sell WL when it was running up, he did not have a good feeling about it and spoke his mind about it, he was right and a lot of us did not listen to him. I know if I had listened to him I would be a very wealthy man but, I was hoping for the long ball and we all know what happened, the company lead on that everything was just fine and of course it turned out to be false. Jim also steered a lot of us into SLI and then onto KRD and I know a lot of people made some money there all because Jim had brought it to our attention. The last year or so of Jim's life I did not follow some of his picks as my life had gotten too busy for me to follow the day to day stuff of the markets so that is when I put my money back into SRU, and here I remain. I did call him on occasion, when time permitted, just to catch up we would spend more time talking of personal stuff rather than the stock market. Jim was a good man and he made quite an impact on my life. He was the one who counselled me when there was drug and alcohol being abused by one of my family members. He told me what to expect and when I should move in for an intervention. He even went as far as offering to talk to my family member and gave me the location that he thought would be best for treatment. As my family member was in treatment Jim had offered to go visit him and just spend time helping him out. My family member didn't feel comfortable about it, so Jim never made the trip but for him to offer to do this would have meant full day trips just to get there and back. Jim offered this all the time battling his own health problems and I think this shows you just what kind of man he was if you spent the time to get to know him. Thanks to Jim I had the courage to do an intervention and that started the road to recovery for my family and for that we are all so very thankful. My family member would probably not be with us now if it had not been for Jim's insight and his encouragement to me in that very hard time. Jim, you will be missed, I know you were having a very hard time with your health and although you are not with us anymore it is reassuring knowing that you are not suffering anymore. May you rest in peace my friend.