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Uno walked over that night and tried to enter the rear of the building where there is a residential area. He told police he knew Mike, but he was turned back.

“They said you can’t go to them right now. The paramedics are with them,” he recalled.

Photo by Jason Payne / PNG

Mike and Uno met in 1976 and used to go biking twice a week. It was a chance to talk politics and life together, the art dealer said in an interview in the back of his shop Wednesday.

But recently, Mike and Edith’s health had started to slide, Uno recalled. Mike had suffered a stroke on a trip to Paris, but he had pressed on to South Africa in a wheelchair.

On Mike’s return to Canada, Uno noticed his friend had lost some of his speech, and had trouble performing.

“To Mike, music was everything,” Uno said. “He would play every evening. That was his life. That was his joy.”

On Tuesday morning, Edith and Mike’s son Daniel called Uno and told him his parents had died.

By Wednesday, Uno said the deaths had yet to soak in.

“It would take a couple hours for me to tell you everything about how much they both meant to us,” Uno said. Dianne concurred.

Jason Doucette, a Vancouver Police spokesman, said detectives are working with members of the B.C. Coroners Service to confirm what caused the deaths of thecouple.

“There is no evidence, at this time, to suggest anyone else was involved in this incident,” he said Wednesday. “I can tell you we do not feel there is any risk to the public, and we are not asking for the public’s assistance in any way.”