I first met Marge and Kay in 1967 when
I was dating Marge's sister Judy, and I got to know them well over
the next few years. Kay had a strong interest in intellectual things,
Marge was warm and gracious, a “lady” in all the best senses of
the word. They were very attractive people. Sometimes we babysat for
them. They had a nice new house on the north edge of Calgary. The
house had a large family room in the basement with many souvenirs
from Kay's mission in South Africa.
The story of their engagement ring is a
classic. While serving in South Africa, where diamonds were
relatively inexpensive, he bought a diamond engagement ring for his
girlfriend back home. After returning home, he proposed to her and
offered her the diamond ring. To his dismay she turned him down. A
very disappointed Kay gave the ring to his mother saying “You may
as well keep it. I am not going to be needing it.” This was very concerning for his mother, since Kay was an only child and his mother
hoped to be a grandmother some day. Then Kay met Marge, who had
recently come to Calgary to take a business course and was staying in
the same building as Kay. Somehow, they seemed to keep seeing each
other more and more frequently, and any time Marge was planning on
going home to Raymond for the weekend, Kay “just happened” to be
planning to go home to Cardston and offered her a ride. After dating
for a while, Kay asked his mother “You wouldn't happen to still
have that old diamond ring I gave you, would you?” Joyfully, she
gave him the ring, and soon Marge was wearing it.
Kay was a mentor to me in some ways. I
followed his example in becoming a school teacher. And I remember
consciously following his advice in buying life insurance, and there
were undoubtedly other things I did unconsciously. After his
retirement he wrote a history of the community of Woolford, and after my retirement I wrote some short histories but nothing on that scale.
I remember us watching the Apollo 11
moon landing with them on the TV in their living room.
We saw them frequently until I
graduated from University of Calgary in 1970 and we moved away.
They enjoyed boating and they had a
cabin on Shuswap Lake that was absolutely loved by their children.
This cabin was bigger than their house in Calgary and was only
accessible by boat. Kay had an interest in mechanical things, and I
remember him showing us their little electrical power plant powered
by a pelton wheel connected to a mountain stream. Very ingenuous!
When Kay's parents retired, he was
given the opportunity to take over the family farm. He was not sure
that the income from the farm would be sufficient, so he asked his
friend Grant Matkin for a job teaching school. Grant's answer was
basically. “Kay I would love to hire you, but as Superintendent of
Schools, I can't do it. You are a school administrator with a
Master's degree, and at the very top of the salary grid. I could hire
two newly-graduated teachers for the salary I would have to pay you.
I am sorry, but I can't do that.” So Kay stayed in Calgary until
his retirement.
After retiring, Kay and Marge moved to
Cardston, where they had many friends. They had a motorcycle club
called the Myth Boys, and they took long road trips together, Kay had
a shiny Harley Davidson with all of the bells and whistles.
Later they moved to southern Utah,
where Marge died of cancer.
After some time, Kay married Kathy
Bills, and they have been spending their summers in Cardston and their
winters in southern Utah.
God be with you 'til we meet again my friend.
