Beryl went to the Santa Claus Parade almost every year when her sisters were younger. Her family followed much the same tradition each year, but she never expected the parade in 1942 to be so memorable.
Beryl was born in Toronto in 1928. She had two younger sisters named Joy and Sonja. In 1942, Beryl was 14, Joy was 11, and Sonja was four.
When parade day arrived, Beryl’s father, Alex, took the three girls to downtown Toronto. The Santa Claus Parade was already a long-standing Toronto tradition. During the Second World War, horses sometimes pulled the floats because gasoline needed to be conserved.
The family drove from Weston and then walked the remaining distance to the parade route. The streets were crowded, and it would have been easy for a small child to disappear among so many people.
Because Sonja was the youngest and smallest, she sat on her father’s shoulders. After a while, Alex became tired and put her down.
Then something happened.
When Beryl, Joy, and their father looked around, they could not find Sonja.
They were frightened and immediately began searching through the crowd. Sonja was only four years old, and the parade was filled with people. For ten or fifteen anxious minutes, the family looked everywhere.
Finally, they found Sonja nearby in the crowd.
Their father quickly lifted her back onto his shoulders so that she would not become separated from them again. The surprising thing was that Sonja had not even realized she was lost. While the rest of her family had been scared and worried, Sonja had simply continued enjoying the parade.
Beryl’s family believed that Sonja had disappeared from view because she was so much smaller than everyone around her.
The family continued attending the Santa Claus Parade in later years, but they were always much more careful about staying together. Going to the parade remained an important family tradition while Joy and Sonja were young.