Keith and Family. 

I have many many fond memories of living at the Troake home during my three years at York U.  Olive and Wilfred were the most lovely and gracious couple and I especially remember Wilfred's 1968 Dodge Charger. I'm very pleased that Wilfred lived to a ripe old age and was surrounded by a loving family. Best wishes to you all.

Michael Seaman
Winnipeg

Wow, it is hard to believe that it is 10 years since dad passed. He still lives on in our thoughts and memories!

Thanks again to the nurses and caregivers at Tall Pines for their loving care, to clergy and members of St. Joseph of Nazareth Church, to family, friends and neighbors who supported dad and our family over the years!

Please take a moment today to think about dad and someone else you love or have lost... and smile about how they made a difference in your life! Take care and stay safe!

Eulogy for Dad
Wilfred Troake: September 18, 1916 - February 18, 2011

By Keith Troake


 Today I wanted to talk about things Dad loved to do.  My grandfather was a fisherman and a carpenter.  I think it is through my grandfather that Dad attained a love of woodworking.  When he retired from Kodak all his friends there got together and made a lathe as a retirement gift. I still have several pieces of furniture that he made.  One in particular was made from a old television box that belonged to my wife’s parents.  Dad created drawers in it that were lined with velvet for flatware.  If you know the movie Star Wars it will remind you to R2D2. If you get a chance to visit us you will find it is in our dining room.

 Dad loved music. He and his 7 brothers and sisters were all very musical and were an important part of the church choir in Twillingate.  He played the piano, organ, guitar and harmonica.  He never took any music lessons but learned to play by ear.  Mom would have Christmas dinner for the family and every evening after the dinner we would sing Christmas carols while Dad played. It was a tradition that we kept up for many years.  We would always end the evening with Silent Night.

 Dad was a very social person.  Mom said he had “the gift of the gab”. He loved going to parties and would work the room.  By the end of the party everyone would know Wilf Troake and what a humorous and entertaining fellow he was. When Dad went to Tall Pines nursing home at 91 he soon became a favourite with the residents and the nurses and care workers.  Yesterday I was talking to a nurse and she described Dad has “a gentleman and a half.”  One of the physio therapists described Dad this way - He said if metals were handed out for being charming Dad would win a gold metal.
 
 Dad loved telling stories. Most of his stories were autobiographical and it is through those stories that I learned a lot about Dad when he was a child.  He would often tell a story that had drama and when the point of the story was at its most suspenceful he would pause and there would be silence.  We would get frustrated and finally shout, “Well what happened?”  He loved that we were so caught up in his story and that he had our attention in the palm of his hand.

  The area of story telling that Dad was reluctant to talk about was the time he was overseas during World War Two.  Mom explained to us that Dad sometimes would have nightmares about the time he was a soldier.  Dad belonged to the Newfoundland Regiment and therefore was attached to the British Army. During the invasion of Normandy he landed on Sword Beach. It took a lot of persistence on my part to learn about his time in England before the Invasion of Normandy and even more persistence on my part to get him to tell me some of the stories about the conflict in Europe.   Eventually he told me several stories about his life as a soldier.  

 I remembered these stories and used them at school where I was a teacher.  During our Remembrance Day Service I was given time to relate one story to the staff, students and visitors.  I did this for many years before I retired and I always had people come up to me and say how much they enjoyed the story.  I felt it was one way to honour our veterans give the students a true window into the sacrifices our veterans made.




 One thing Dad stressed was that he did not consider himself a hero.  He told us about the time he was injured several months before the end of the war and he was sent home to Twillingate.  Since he was the first soldier back from the war, a special reception was made in a large hall.  It seemed that half the town was there to welcome him back.  A local politician was the keynote speaker.  He talked about Dad as a hero and it seemed from his speech that Dad almost won the war by himself.  Dad was furious about this speech and actually got up and left the room midway through the speech for several minutes to calm down.

 My favourite story that I told during Remembrance Day Service was a story Dad told  me about the time he was near the border of the Netherlands and Germany.  He led a small group of soldiers whose task was to go through houses and buildings that might have snipers in them.  This particular farm had a house and a one story barn.  Dad sent his men into the house and he went to investigate the barn.  He said as soon as he entered the door he could see that the barn was empty except for a half wall of hay bales near the back.  There were large wooden columns that ran down the centre of the barn. With machine gun in hand he stepped behind one of the columns and looked at the hay bales.  He said he sensed there was someone hidden there.  He was afraid and shouted out that anyone behind the bales were to raise their hands and come out or he would shoot.  A few seconds later, two small pairs of hands were raised behind the hay bales.  Two Dutch girls who were sisters came out from behind the hay wall.  I think Dad was so thankful that this was one time he did not shoot.  The youngest girl, about nine years old was limping painfully and the older girl, about fourteen was helping her.  Dad looked and saw she had been shot through the leg above the knee and the wound looked like it was several days old.  The younger girl could only speak Dutch and the older sister knew some English.  He also noticed that the girls were chewing on a small raw turnip.  He gave them a chocolate bar and all the rations that he had and called a medic for the younger girl.  While the young girl was carried out on a stretcher, he held her hand and she said something to him in Dutch.  He asked the older sister what she said.  She told him that her younger sister said, “Don’t leave me.”  He walked for several minutes with her but had to leave and told the older sister that he still had a job to do. 


 Even in that story Dad never considered himself a  hero.   

 Sorry Dad, but, in my heart you will always be a hero to me.

Great Popa, I remember visiting you at your home.  I will miss you Great Popa, I love you very much.  I have lots of happy memories about you.

Composed by his great grandson,
Christopher

To the Troake family. As a former Kodak friend, I was sorry to hear of Wilf's passing.  Bob Roberts formerly from Twillingate

My Tribute to dad...

Hello everyone, for those who don’t know me, I’m Stephen, Wilf’s son.  But you can call me Steve… or you can call me Keith… I’ll answer to either one.  Just to explain, as typical with most parents, Keith was called Steve and I was called Keith.  We never minded and for me it’s a compliment.

As you know or can probably guess, I came a little late on the scene into the Troake family. I can only imagine what 46-year-old Wilf was thinking when his excited wife Olive told him she was expecting, yet again.  Yup… more crying, more diapers and more sleepless nights, just when he thought that was all a thing of the past.  Well, at least it might be another sweet little girl, like Kathy.  Uh nope, sorry, strike two.  But, as I grew, I knew in my heart that I was loved and cherished along with Keith and Kathy. And, a big part of me is reflection of him and mom and everyone in our close-knit family.

I could stand up here for hours and try to express my feelings for dad, but I’ll try to share a few thoughts and memories, to give you a very brief glimpse of what my dad means to me.  He was my exact definition of a dad:

Strong but had a very tender side;
Loving but disciplined;
Talented and creative with his hands;
Dapper but not flashy;
Charming, but… but nothing… he was very charming!

Yes, dad was usually the life of the party.  Sometimes it was just getting him there that was the issue, which frustrated mom to no end, yet ironically once he was there he jumped in with both feet.  Don’t get me wrong, dad and mom were a great team who truly complimented each other and were married for over 61 years!  But, mom used to always say that party goers would inevitably come up to her to say: “Wilf’s so much fun, he must be a joy to live with”  and Mom would just sigh and smile.  Dad was a talented self-taught musician who had a beautiful singing voice, played guitar and keyboard.  He played the organ many times for the church services at Tall Pines, as Reverend Sal knows.  He loved to make and then eat a good bowl of soup.  No hot summer day was complete without a dinner of flaming hot soup with beads of sweat on dad’s forehead and he savoured every spoonful. Dad loved a good meal and his favourite dinners out with us were at places like Swiss Chalet (quarter chicken white with fries, or sometimes pot pie for a change – just make sure it’s HOT, Heritage Fish & Chips (you guessed it, fish and chips) and Pizza Hut (for a Hawaiian personal and chicken wings).

Dad was a WWII veteran who was at D-Day.  He hit Sword Beach with those other brave men who sacrificed to provide us the freedoms we enjoy today.  He volunteered for service because he wanted to make a difference.  For that, I am incredibly proud.  Dad was a sports fan… a pessimistic sports fan, but a fan none-the-less.  Hey, when you are cheering for the Leafs, you alternate between despair and insanity at the best of times.  Even though he thoroughly hating driving (a close second to his dislike for being in a boat), he drove me to countless hockey games, practices and tournaments.  He drove to work at Kodak at least an hour early just to beat the traffic. He drove us all to Newfoundland on many summer trips.  He retained his unblemished license until he was over 90!  In fact he bought his last car, a Saturn Ion, shortly after his 90th birthday!  I drove him to the dealership when he collected his new car.  As you know, Saturn no longer exists, but when you used to buy a new car there, they would have a short ceremony with all the staff on hand that day.  I overheard one of the young guys from the shop say quietly to someone beside him “how OLD is that guy?”  I turned, smiled proudly and said “he’s 90!”.  The saleslady drove him around the lot a bit to get him comfortable in his new wheels, while I waited inside.  She returned to her desk and I saw her and asked where dad was… she said, “Oh, he already left!”.  Dad drove on home without me!  I laughed as I drove to his house to find his shiny new Saturn parked in the driveway.

He taught me so much over the years.  He used to say: “I’ve forgotten more than you will ever know” and I know for a fact that that statement is true.  The day we both will never forget was when I was about 15.  We were working on my new bedroom in the basement on Brookland Drive.  He tried to take the screwdriver away from me to show me "how it’s done" and, by the way, I knew I wasn’t doing it right.  But, instead of giving in this time, I turned to him and said “no, I can do it, go away!”  He got up quietly and left.  He went and told mom what happened and she was quite pleased!  Sometime shortly after that, I planted a blue spruce without his consent.  I can still see him walking up the road, seeing me beside it, all proud of myself, and him shaking his head from side to side in disapproval.  “That”, he said, “will never grow”.  Well, much to mine and mom’s delight, it did grow.  It’s still there standing proudly at #71 Brookland Drive.  Then, I further pushed my luck by soldering all the plumbing joints in the new basement bathroom we were building, without dad’s supervision.  He got home from work that day and took one look and said:  “That’s gonna leak everywhere”.  Well, we turned on the water and guess what?  Not one leak!  But, I can’t take the credit, it’s only because he taught me so well!

Dad started the sometimes difficult road to his passing when he was 89.  Keith called me at work to tell me he was going with dad to the hospital with a terrible case of the flu.  I met them in Emergency, dad was on a stretcher.  He looked into my eyes, and with his usual dramatic way he said 2 words “I’m finished”.  Mom was right when she said that Dad was never the most well behaved patient and typically every cold was “the worst ever!”.  However, this one WAS the worst ever.  Once we got inside so he could be looked at, he met a pretty female doctor; he held her hand, smiled and told her “well, I’d kinda like to get to 90!”  The ‘ol Troake charm was still there!  As you can see he wasn’t even close to being finished and got well past there with a little help from Keith, Kathy, me and the rest of the family.  

There’s so much more to tell, but as you can see we love our dad and his memories will live on in all of us. At this time, I’d like to thank everyone for your kindness, support, flowers, phone calls and well wishes… each and every gesture is so greatly appreciated by all of us.  A special thanks to all the nurses, the caregivers, the staff and volunteers at Tall Pines Long Term Care Home, along with his many, many friends and neighbours there.  Knowing he was there, that he was incredibly well cared for and loved was a priceless comfort to our entire family.

To end off, please bear with me as I’d like to read part of one of dad’s favourite poems…

What is this life that’s full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to sit beneath the boughs
And stare around like sheep and cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
What is this life that’s full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

A day like today reminds us we must take the time.  Take the time to remember those we loved and to cherish those still here.

May God bless you and your family in this time of sorrow.

February 22,2011

Keith, Kathy, Steve and Families

We enjoyed the slide show that had so many wonderful memories. Uncle Wilf was sure a fun person to be with. Our thoughts and prayers are with you today and in the days ahead.
                 Hugs,
                   Audrey & Max

Keith, Kathy, Steve & Families

Enjoyed the pictures of you all. Uncle Wilf had some of the best of the Troake genes, a long life, a loving family, and lots of good memories. 

Thinking of you all and sharing in your sorrow,

Carl & Eula

Keith, Kathy, Steve and Families, we were saddened to hear of Uncle Wilf's passing. It was so good to talk with you all on Saturday. Remember the good times when you were all together. It brought back such good memories of years ago when we saw him again this past October. It was wonderful to hear his laugh and see his smile.

We share in your sorrow and be assured the family back in Newfoundland are keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers.

Love you all!!!

Carl & Eula

Our condolences to you all as you remember Wilfred's life. The photo gallery alone shows a treasure trove of memories, from a young man in uniform to being surrounded by loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with your family.

Dear Kathy, Andy, and family,
You have our deepest sympathy.  Your father had a long life, well-lived, and he will be missed by his loving family.
Sharon and Jussi

Beautiful photos, some I have never had the chance to see before!
I am sending all my love to all family and friends.  He was truly the best Papa anyone could ever ask for.

Our condolences to the entire Troake family for your loss.  What a beautiful photographic tribute.  So much to be proud of and wonderful memories to cherish.

Dear Kathy, Steve & Keith:
Very sorry to hear about your Dad. We are in Florida so unable to  give you all hugs. We certainly had a lot of great times with both your Mom & Dad. We will keep you all in our prayers,
Judy & Len

My dear Steve and family, so sad to hear of your dad's passing. The photo gallery is a true testament to a fully lived life, what awesome pictures.  So many great memories for you to hang on to.  All our love, Luanne, Bri and Blaire Dube

OBITUARIO

Mr. Wilfred Troake

18 septiembre, 1916 – 18 febrero, 2011

Andrews Community Funeral Centre - Bramalea Chapel

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