My story starts when Jean and Wilf first got together. They met at Calvary Church in Toronto. Their first date was at a baseball game. Jean was 17 and Wilf was 20.
Jean didn’t like the city and missed Saskatchewan and her friends. Luckily, her best friend moved from Saskatchewan to a place just up the street from Calvary Church. After her friend moved, Jean met a lot of other friends too. Jean lived with her family in an apartment on Hambly Avenue in Toronto, while Wilf lived with his family.
Jean didn’t go to college; she just worked. Wilf did go to high school, but he dropped out when his mother got very ill and his family needed his support. Jean and Wilf lived in Toronto together for 45 years. During this time, Jean’s little brother Ken got a blue and green budgie from a pet store in Toronto and named him Peter.
Peter would land on Wilf’s head. Ken named him Peter because he thought it would be easy for him to say. Peter learned to say, “Hi, I’m Peter.” Jean’s grandma taught him to say that, but since she was Scottish, Peter spoke with an accent.
While they had Peter, they also had a little black Cocker Spaniel named Cindy. Ken got her for Christmas and brought her from Saskatchewan. When their dad brought her home, she could fi t in his pocket. Sadly, after seven years, they had to give Cindy away because they worked too much and she was getting very lonely.
They gave her to a family friend. On the same day, Cindy got out of the place they were living and was never found again. Sometime after, Peter died of old age at five years old. A lot has changed in their lives together since they first met at Calvary Church in Toronto.
Pets have come and gone. But one thing has stayed the same: their lives together. At the time this story was written, Jean and Wilf had been married for 72 years!