Sylvia Davidson

It’s taken me a while to write this as there are SO MANY memories from which to choose. Here are just a few of them: Good Neighbours: We were Sylvia’s neighbours on Vanderhoof for 20 years. When we moved in there and saw 4 dogs, I have to admit we were nervous about having to listen to barking 24/7. But they were always friendly, well-behaved dogs and we got to love each and every one of them – along with their owner. What luck – we had a great neighbour! Sylvia and I became friends. We were both teachers with the Toronto Board of Education – at the time, she was retired and I was still teaching. We always had great conversations (and laughs) about our lives as teachers, not only regarding our time with the Toronto Board, but also regarding each of our teaching adventures around the world. For all those years, we had each other’s house keys and we looked after each other’s properties whenever one of us was away. After we moved away in 2016, Sylvia and I continued our friendship with visits and dinner outings. We even continued the tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts. Christmases: For years we had Sylvia over for Christmas Eve for a meal of “finger-foods” around the fire. The evening usually ended with singing carols while Sylvia accompanied on the piano. Then we would all take the dogs out for their nightly walk around the neighbourhood. We always enjoyed the Christmas lights at the front of Sylvia’s house. My husband and I would work for hours putting Christmas lights around our front door and bushes. In the meantime, Sylvia would come out of her house with a big “ball” of lights, cigarette in her mouth, and kind of “throw” them up onto her front bushes. We would always laugh that her lights looked just as good (or even better) than ours! The Midnight Gardener: That’s what we called her because that’s when she did a lot of her gardening! Sylvia was a nighthawk. She stayed up until the wee hours every night. Often around midnight throughout the summer and fall we could hear the gentle sound of raking on her front lawn! She and the dogs would be wandering around quietly from front to back yards till the wee hours. This actually became a comfort to me and I slept well because of it. One time we could see that someone had tried to break into our house when we were away, as there were tell-tale signs around a basement window in our backyard. I’m convinced to this day that the dogs heard something and barked to scare them off. The Fence: There was a fence separating our properties but we socialized over that fence all the time. We would pass things back and forth. She was generous with her tomatoes and raspberries and new puppies! Yes, we got to help socialize the new puppies she bred over the years! What a treat that was. In return, we would help her with cleaning eavestroughs, snow shovelling, etc. My son started doing her summer yard maintenance as a little job and then just kept doing it after he grew up and moved out because they had also become friends. We are still quite saddened by her passing. Indeed, it’s sometimes hard to believe because it happened so suddenly and she was so vibrant right to the end. I once asked Sylvia if she ever got to the point where she couldn’t handle maintaining a house any longer and may have to move, how she would feel about having to do that? She told me in no uncertain terms that she would never leave her house until the day she died. I’m glad she got her wish. It’s just as she wanted it. Rest in peace, Sylvia. We miss you. Robbie Olivero