Jared Davies

A toast to the couple If your last name is Kerslake or Wiebe, or if you cry at the first sign of someone else shedding a tear, I’m going to need you to go ahead and put the teal sunglasses you received today on, and not make eye contact with me for the next 3 minutes. Kaitlin/Ally, you guys are on standby for when this goes south. Now, I know I’m up here to do the toast to the couple, but you’re out of your mind if you think I’m not going to spend a minute talking about my sister. Although I cannot imagine our relationship to be any different than it is now, we actually got off to quite a rocky start. It’s 1992, I just came into the world, cute & overcooked. And Jamie, after complaining to my parents that all I did was eat, sleep, and cry - asked if they had a receipt for me. Thus confirming that even at the tender age of 3, she had the shopping comprehension level of a young adult. Sorry jam, no returns after 14 days. While some of my favourite memories with Jam include days where we just sit and watch horrible reality tv or murder shows, some include states trips, the numerous times she turned 30, Palm Springs pool days, some include coordinating a number of weddings, quite fitting that the last one we coordinated together was here, just over a year ago. Other memories include her sitting me down on the toilet and telling me “beauty was pain” while she tried every kind of hairstyle on me, the way at 12 she absolutely running the show (right down to hair and makeup) every time we decided to put together some form of performance piece for our parents. One of my favourites if I may, and one that I think is a favourite amongst the family, took place in Carmen, many years ago at Grandma and Pa Pete’s house. Our younger cousin Zach, had a fisher price fishing kit. We set him up outside with an empty bucket on the back deck. Enter Jamie, who arrives at the house, steps out of the vehicle, looks at the white bucket and says “what’s leaking?”, and in that moment knowing she was never going to live that down. If you are lucky enough to be an important person in Jamie’s life, She will be your biggest supporter (even if it’s for the smallest things like getting yourself a treat on the way home). She will laugh at all of your jokes - though, you do come to learn the ones that are real laughs and the pity laughs. On the plus side, no matter which laugh you get, it’s one you would be able to locate in a crowd of hundreds of people. She will pronounce words in a way only she can, like sauce, milk, among many others. She loves fully and fiercely; and loves a good beard and a man who drives a truck. When Jamie told me about their first date, I remember her saying “nik, I don’t know what happened, but it’s like time slowed down when I first saw him” and I thought oh lordddddd what are we getting into here - and I would almost bet money that I said something snarky along the lines of “did a savage garden song start playing too?” Then I met him and I got to see that the things that she felt for him were reciprocated ten fold. I got to watch him discover everything that makes Jamie, Jamie. As he started to meet all of the important people in Jamie’s life, we all, as a collective, knew this was it for her. I would say I really knew he was going to stick when he not only survived his first Kerslake/Wiebe get together, but he thrived. We’re an overprotective, loud, loving, sarcastic bunch, who sometimes ask inappropriate questions like “do you get Kinky?” (Papa K) He took every bad joke, every interrogating question in stride, and when he left the room there was many a conversation about how pissed we would be if they didn’t end up exactly where they are today. I hope Jared that you know by now, that you’ve had my approval from the get-go. You had it even before I really got to know the type of guy you are. Jared’s the kind of guy who says “hey nik, you staying for dinner?” even if I’m just stopping by their place to pick something up quick or get in a quick Harri fix. He’s the kind of guy that within 20 minutes of finding out my battery died in my escape, he was on the phone with me, giving me the options I could buy and telling me he could install it that night. He’s also the kind of guy who will sit and hang out with his girlfriends sister and answer all of her dumb questions about whatever video game he was currently playing. He’s one of the first to offer to help, no matter the situation. He’s also a bit annoying in the sense that he can learn how to do almost anything from a 10 minute YouTube tutorial and only have to watch it once. And if you give the guy an air fryer and a bag of fries and he’ll make dreams come true. Jared, I hope you didn’t think I would let this moment pass without bringing up your “what’s leaking moment”. So it’s the dead of winter; and the three of us get back to the apartment. I’m sitting on the couch, Jam is standing in the kitchen; Jared sits down on the chair beside me; he’s in a hoodie and sweats, he shivers and goes “man… if only they made socks, but for your head” —— there was silence for about 4 seconds, jam and I made eye contact and I think telepathically said “just give him a second; he’ll get there” and then he goes “oh wait”