My name is Courtney and I am Terry’s younger daughter and I am going to be speaking to you about who my dad was in my eyes. As people sent in their condolences, I began to see a pattern of how many of you thought of him as these thoughts were repeated over over:
• Generous gentleman
• Interesting person to talk to
• Optimistic
• Incredible energy
• Obvious how much family meant to him
• He was always a lot of fun.
• Kind
• Helpful
Today we asked you to share a memory that you had of my dad and I am sure for many of you your memories included the words I just mentioned.
Terry had a full and happy life. He lived his life the way he wanted. He did some really fun things.
Terry was born at Toronto General hospital on Thursday Sept 06 1945. He was named Terrence because his dad's favorite cartoon was Terry and the pirates. Which was a popular action-adventure comic strip in the 40s.
He grew up in Leaside with his older brother Mike, his mom Patricia and dad Warren. He remembered it was a nice house and his room had a radio and a fold out couch. He was a boy scout , went to summer camp and on camping out trips at Camp Kandalore My dad had a stutter as a child and His favorite teacher was his grade 3 teacher Mrs. Roland. Who helped him overcome this.
His best friend was a kid named Pete Burrows. His favorite memories were riding his bike, his dogs, going to the movies and getting gum, pop and comic books at the store with his allowance. He loved his cottage at Wimblewood Beach on Georgian Bay and told stories of boat rides and parties. He was a great swimmer and had earned his National life saving badges. His first jobs were pumping gas at BP gas and pool maintenance at the Leaside memorial pool. He loved cars and had many- some he built and repaired and some he had custom made.
My dad's favorite holiday was Christmas and he loved bread stuffing. His favourite place to visit was the Cayman Islands.
His favourite thing about being a grandpa was that he could crank the kids all up and then sat see you later.
His dream for his family was to be happy and healthy.
He wanted everyone to have enough money to live a life that they wanted to live to be happy.
He was proud of how our family would pull together.
He loved hockey and he loved to dance and music, he loved golf, swimming, boating and water skiing in his younger days He loved scuba diving and worked at Seaworld in Florida and he loved teaching scuba diving at the Delawona inn at Honey Harbour.
When I asked him about his life, he answered that he had a pretty good life, lots of successes and a few stumbles but more success that stumbles. He told me that he was happy he had 2 really nice daughters who married 2 really nice guys and gave him 6 super grandkids who were all up to something good. I know my dad was proud of Stacey and I and the families and lives we have built. He always had a coke in hand. He liked to hug.
His favorite food was a hamburger, fries and a coke.
Dad was quick to frustrate- he didn’t like when people couldn't make up their minds and would slow the process down. He could be inflexible and liked to embellish stories.
He was dependable, handy, helpful and always had just the thing to fix something or get a job done, he was encouraging, positive and took pleasure in other people's successes. He loved to hear a success story but more often he liked to share a story. He encouraged me in sports, travel and risk taking. He was always optimistic that things would turn out. He held this belief right up until the very end of his life. He was still making plans to do things with his golf buddies. It is this positive outlook that gave him the extra time he had with us.
He always called me Kiddo. When I would ask him how he was doing he would tell me he was about a 7/10. My last conversation with him- I asked if he needed any adjustment of a pillow or a blanket. If he was warm enough, he said he was fine and then he said Bye with a little nod.
Thank you for all you taught me (how to drive standard, how to play baseball, how to mow the lawn and how to perfectly wrap a present) and for all the fun times we had together. We spent a lot of time swimming together, watching and playing sports, we went diving together and I did my first night dive with him.
Because he had such a great sense of humour - I can’t leave my speech on a sad note. So…..
When I asked my dad if there was anything he regretted not doing or learning in life he paused and his answer was “I wish I had learned Karate.” This made me smile and laugh.
They say you only live once but actually you only die once and you live every day.
So today let's share and remember the good stuff.
I love you Dad.
