Muskoka Trip cemetery

In all my photo-stories of our Toronto/Muskoka trip I forgot to tell you about my folks! The plot in the cemetery looks good.

Joan Jilks 1925 - 2006
 Ray Jilks 1925 - 2007

A stone has been placed on the plot beside them (Pratt). There are lots of names, and birth dates, but no death dates. I presume they are being prepared, planning ahead.


It's a lovely cemetery. Lots of interesting stones and placements.

Evelyn Pearl Shand 1938 - 2010
Alexander James Shand 1931 - 2015

Norman Elder 1939- 2003
(His is quite the life story on Wiki!)

Off we went on our tour.

Gardening and plots

I made a choice to honour my parents. I am sure there are not there, they do not sleep, but I honour their legacy.
They were married April 12th, 1945. Mom died Mother's Day, May, 2006. Dad, in February, 2007.
I receive messages from them all the time.

The rainbow that formed the night we sold their precious Muskoka property.

The painting that fell off the wall when trying to choose one to put in Dad's LTC room.

our late neighbour, who built our house

The chocolate that fell out of my pocket the day we were in the basement of the funeral home choosing his urn. (I don't eat chocolate, let alone squirrel it away in my pockets!)

That feeling up my spine when I sense one of them is near. The comforting feeling knowing they lived their lives well, and are volunteering, or Mom organising some group in the heavens!

My parents dearly loved their gardens. I always think of them when out there. With the promise of spring's arrival, I embrace the cycle of the earth and life itself. They taught me well.

 Some cemeteries can be austere places. Others, lush, and green with the promise of spring.

My Muskoka blog buddy, Ed Boutilier, took these photos of my parent's stone for me. I simply could not make the 6-hour trip back there. Rather interesting, but Mom and Dad lie near their friend, Hal Grossman, the man who built their former home!


I designed their stone, and planted the pine. The statue, Emily, was a gift from us.

The other photos are from some interesting stones taken when hunting for a plot.


When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Honouring Muskoka's pioneers

There are many.  A trip through the Torrance cemetery reveals much about our community.

This is the grave marker for the contractor, Hal Grossman, who built our house in 1991!

Thanks to G8 Tony Clement signage!

A ripe old codger, he fled Germany. He was also a taxidermist, and had many critters he'd hunted and killed. I remember seeing them in his house.
Hal, as we all called him, was in the German youth organization. He had no choice.

He settled here in Bala and his fine work can be found in many Muskoka buildings. He bought land here, about the same time of all of us old geezers, in 1960 or so. He built a chalet, then built a larger home having married a Brit, they wanted a larger house. He used to blast German music from loudspeakers down the water front, when the lake began to be more populated. He liked his lake quiet!

Hal Grossman, circa 70s, with Aunt Adie

Hal cleans up a dead tree for us!

We'd arrive for a vacation, and he'd complain about the 'G. D. tourists' arriving, smile on his crusty old face, waving a paddle at us!




My parents had Hal build their cottage and subsequent home!

Me at the cottage

The cottage, 1960 caption

Cottage 1970s

There are some very old stones, reflecting the nature of Muskoka's pioneers.
Little babies, far from health care, who died in infancy.

A recent tombstone, Patty Parsons. This is the woman after whom the latest Habitat Muskoka build is named.

And here is the stone marking my parent's grave. It is a beautiful spot.

Josephine & Isabelle visit great-gramma/grampa's grave

Mom & Dad