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Extra, Extra Curricular
Windsor Secondary scribe blogs about her best Deep Cove summer
PAGE 11
Chatter around the Cove
Cove resident sells fake cheese company for $405 million and Maplewood to get new pub in early 2018
August 2017
9900 Circulation East of the Seymour River
Cove merchants come to the rescue of their beloved ‘mayor’ by MARIA SPITALE-LEISK Jan Overby is a fixture in Deep Cove ready to jump into action – rain, shine, Christmas Day, peak tourist season or two a.m. You see, Overby is the Cove’s unofficial mayor, and rightly so. Some may know Overby by the signature white undershirt he sports – day, night and in December. Others know him by his almost invisible deeds. Overby rises in his apartment above the shops around dawn to start his rounds. At 6 a.m. he sweeps the sidewalks on Gallant Avenue and changes all the garbage bags – even before the first Quarry Rock hikers show up. The retiree will power wash the streets, pick up trash from the ground and salt the sidewalks in the wintertime. Overby also helps open the businesses and brings all the chairs and displays outside. When the last customer leaves, Overby puts it all away again. The shop owners entrust him with their keys. If there’s an after-hours emergency in the Cove, Overby is on the case. “Jan has a heart of gold,” says Room6 owner Megan Curran. “We’ve always joked that he must have a clone because I swear he can be in two places at once. Someone needs help parking, he’s there. Trash is overflowing, he’s emptying it. Kid needs a ride home, done (all while rocking out to custom playlists in the PT Cruiser).” Overby will climb up to the roof and fix patches to keep the residents and merchants below dry, because we all know Deep Cove has its fair share of deluges. Essentially, Overby makes the Cove a more beautiful place than it already is, just by being himself. But don’t take it from us. Read what Overby’s closest friends have to say about this unique Cove character with the biggest heart around.
Pomegranate Grillhouse & Cafe owner Shawn Memarzadeh says he and Overby have been like brothers since they met 12 years ago. Every morning Overby stops in for a coffee and always insists on paying. And if by chance “Mr. Change” has run out because he’s been giving it away – Overby will be back within the hour to pay even the tiniest tab. “He’s a very joyful person. I haven’t seen anyone like him in my life. He always cares about us and helps us in any way he can,” says Memarzadeh. Overby, it seems, is always going way out of his way to help others. Case in point, when one of his neighbours went on a month-long trip. Overby, worried about her car’s battery charge, ensured it started properly when she returned. Memarzadeh’s son Arash, who also works at Pomegranate, has been moved by his dad’s friendship with Overby. “He’s just a human being that literally will do something for you and never hold it over your head. He’s just here for this little community and that’s what he loves,” says Arash. Arash gets a kick out of Overby’s daily visits, especially in the dead of winter when the Cove is quiet. The two will talk hockey or pro wrestling. Overby mourns the sport’s glory days and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. “Jan will come to me and ask me to Google how old one of the James Bond leading actors is because he doesn’t know Google,” says Arash, who could never be annoyed by Overby’s pop quizzes. Overby was Deep Cove’s deputy mayor with the long hair when Maegan Warren first met him in the late 1990s. “He was just a cool dude,” says Warren, who works at LaLa’s in the Cove. Peggy and Fred McKee were Deep Cove royalty at the time and building managers of the apartment above the
Jackie Begley, Sari McCall (holding a “Jan” growler from Deep Cove Brewers), Shawn Memarzadeh, Maegan Warren and Doug McCall are among many Cove residents and merchants rallying around their unofficial mayor Jan Overby, who suffered a stroke in May. PHOTO MIKE WAKEFIELD
shop where Warren works. Fred, who was the unofficial Cove mayor of the day, would sit on the bench out front of the pizza place, always with a broom in his hand, much like his successor. Following Fred’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis he passed the broom to Overby. And when he died, Overby kept Peggy company. LD WI N S Y A MO ALW SAL BC
“They just were bestest of friends. Every day Jan would take his tote bag that contained his slippers and their meal for the night and he would go across the street to the Lions (residence) and make Peggy dinner and they would watch see Overby page 3
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