“Don’t get excited hippie.”
Sadly, the man, the myth, the Ladner legend Speros “Speed” Falcos passed away suddenly at his home on Sept. 30. This will leave a hole in the heart of anyone who knew him.
He was a hard-working man and often enjoyed “working his pinkies to the bone.” Falcos started off as a commercial fisherman. Later, he owned Speed’s Industrial Marine, where he would repair fishing boats. His true love, however, was his bar Speed’s Pub on Chisholm Street which he opened and ran since 1995.
During the day, you could often find Speed at his bar, and listening to many of his interesting stories from long ago from when he was a young “whipper snapper.” In exchange for the stories, Speed would steal your fries for quality control. He also had “10,000 jobs to do,” yet never completed any of them, he really should have been “fired at sunset.”
His work ethic was unmatched to anyone I have ever seen. He was 83, and worked every day, including the day of his passing.
Grandpa was extremely energetic, and around three months ago we were moving large freezers around, just the two of us. These freezers were extremely heavy, and to this day, I have no idea how we moved them. I would often use to joke with my grandpa about retirement, but he would just laugh in my face. I am extremely thankful that he had the chance to keep doing what made him happy.
His family would like to thank the first responders who did everything they could to bring him back to us from his heart failure. We would also like to thank his employees and many friends.
I still cannot believe grandpa is gone; I would like to thank everyone for their positive messages and support during this difficult time. I know grandpa would not want anyone to be upset about his passing, but the impact he had on all our lives makes that impossible.
The family is unable to have a service because of COVID-19, however at a future date we are planning to have a celebration of life. In the meantime, we can all have an ouzo in celebration of Speed’s life.
Speed is survived by number one wife Vivian, number two wife Nancy, companion Darlene, his three daughters Sherrie, Lona, Stephanie (Scott), chosen son Roy Botkin, six grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, and a mountain of stuff.
See you later “young fella.”
This story was written by Falcos’ grandson Charles who included a number of his grandfather’s favourite witty one-liners.
