Norman Henry Rendell, was born in January of 1909 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  He was a first cousin of the author's father John McWillie.  His parents where Jennie McWillie and  Edward Rendell.  He grew up and  received his public education in Victoria, BC, Canada.  Following his schooling, he took training as a radio operator and then took employment with the Canadian Department of  Transport as a lighthouse keeper off the west coast of Vancouver Island.   He manned the lighthouses at  Triple Island and later Kains Island of Vancouver Island.  One Christmas in the late 1940s, he was interviewed by a John Kirkwood,  staff reporter with the Vancouver Sun newspaper.  We are indebted to the Vancouver Sun as well as Norman sister, Nell Stanger for suppling the information for this article.

John Kirkwood reported that Norman Rendell was the likely candidate for "the loneliest man in British Columbia on a Christmas day.  He will spend Christmas day perched on a lonely, craggy little island three hundred and fifty miles north of Vancouver in desolate Quatsino Sound.  On one side of him he can see the bold, angry coastline of northwest Vancouver Island and on the other side he sees nothing but open water.  His only Christmas companion will be the seagulls. There will be no cheerful chatter of family or friends, no tinkle of glasses, no blazing Yule logs only the monotonus crashing of the sea, beating on the rocky shore of tiny Kains Island.

Norman Rendell, unmarried and Keeper of Quatsino light station is one of two men manning coastal lighthouses alone. All other lighthouses of which twenty are considered isolated are tended by Keepers with assistants or have families with them.   Although the task of manning the light houses can be a very lonely occupation particularly at holiday time like Christmas, the job is essential to the welfare and safety of many of those sailors travelling past rocky coastlines like exist on Vancouver Island.

Norman says that he isn't really going to be lonely on Christmas day. He will be running the lighthouse beacon as well as probably run the fog horn too. He has a lot of reading to do, however he says he has not got any presents or had any mail for a long time because of bad weather. He hasn't got a Christmas tree and will not be getting any shore leave until next July, however the interview gave him the opportunity to wish his family and friends a "Merry Christmas to all".

Norman retired from his lighthouse duties and spent the remaining period of his life in Victoria, BC,  where he died in 1975.   The lighthouse sector in Canada has seen great changes since Norman's time. Most of the stations are operated electronically, no longer with operators manning them.  However, many of the older seagoing personel are critical of the new systems, claiming that the stations are far less sensitive and safety responsive than when people like Norman physically manned the light house stations.