Imprinted on Rainer’s brain are the sights, sounds, and smells of Port Moody on a warm summer afternoon in 1958—some of his earliest memories. His mind conjures vivid images of running down the lane next to the sawmill with his brother as a shortcut to Rocky Point Park. Listening to nature’s symphony of crickets and croaking frogs, interrupted by the deafening sounds of industrial blades cutting through massive cedar logs. And the hunger-inducing sights and smells of hot dogs, ice cream sandwiches, penny candies, and six-cent bottles of coke from the park’s concession stand. It’s a time that feels both like a lifetime ago and like it was just yesterday.

While Rainer and Port Moody have certainly changed over the past 66 years, one thing has remained the same—Rainer’s ability to call this part of the Burrard Inlet home. His story is rare. Aside from years spent away at university and his time teaching up North, Rainer moved to Port Moody at the young age of five and has remained here ever since. He even lives in the same house he grew up in, buying it from his parents after they retired. Not many people can say they remember planting the now 60-foot-tall trees that tower in the backyard like Rainer can. From a kid wandering the dirt road now known as Barnett Hwy to teaching art as a student teacher at his old alma mater, to being a landowner and building a successful business (the Gallery Bistro) with his wife Helen—life in one place has been anything but repetitive.

To this day, Rainer still finds it hard to believe that he has a piece of Port Moody where he wandered in his youth. He says, “Little would I have imagined as a young child that one day my future wife and I would own three of the little buildings in The Old Town Centre.” While the New Town Center is where most of the action happens now, Rainer says with hope, “With the SkyTrain not that far away, and new developments bringing people in— perhaps enough people will be strolling the sidewalks again. And the Old Town will get its mojo back.”

While many might resist seeing the place they cherish most change around them, Rainer embraces it with an open heart and mind. Instead of seeing the change as taking away something he has always known, he believes it’s his (and Helen’s) chance to finally get what they want.

“Helen has always pined for living in a place where you could walk to a coffee shop.” He explains, “Pretty soon, we’re going to have what we’re longing for, which is this village feel around us.”

For others, a walkable shop might not seem like much, but for Rainer, this marks another very welcome way for him to experience a place that has become a part of his being. And for his home to become more vibrant than ever.