PETER VERIGIN TRIBUTE
(Deceased August30, 2014)

Peter Verigin comes from a special fraternity nicknamed: “The Fabulous Fourteen”. With great pride, I too, have membership in the group of first cousins born to brothers Bill, John, Sam and sisters Polly and Anne, all children of Vasyl and Auxuta Verigin.

Interestingly enough, the original family started out living communally on the original homestead, five miles North of Veregin. Peter played with his cousins Mildred, Mike, Lawrence, Russel until the decision was reached that Bill, John and Sam would leave the homestead to George, Alex and Anne and raise their families on their own.

That original kinship continued over the years with the fourteen cousins so that everyone considered themselves as brothers and sisters rather than cousins. We have now lost five (5) of this group.

So some stories that I recall about Peter include:
1. Tolstoi School was the educational hub of many of these cousins with an unbeatable school softball team. Some of these alumini are present here and can attest to how formidable this team was at all the school track meets including the Regional Meet at Kamsack. Peter was the Catcher and Sam the Pitcher they became able to predict what each were going to do. With the support of teacher MacLaughlin, they perfected skills that were unusual in a rural community
2. Peter and cousin Sam carried on their compatibility to cooking and realized that butter must be used in a pan when frying potatoes after inundating the kitchen with smoke
And so years went by and families grew along with the maturing of friendships beyond the blood relationship. I would classify my personal kinship with Peter was to total love which extended to my wife Marilyn and then to all my children who became attached to all Peter and Evelyn’s offspring. This continues to this day.

Peter also had total confidence in his sons that was demonstrated a few years ago when I had asked Jason Morozoff if I could meditate in his White Sand River Retreat. Jason was not so sure about his uncle’s ability to challenge the Beavers, Bear, Ticks and Mosquitoes and had taken the precaution to ask David and Tim to keep an eye on me.

I was leaving one day and decided to clean up. Cleaning up meant emptying the spent ashes from the stove and barb-b-q. Being an Environmentalist of sorts I decided that dumping in the river was not as good an idea as spreading them in the ravine across the road as fire remains assist plant growth. This followed by a trip into Veregin to the Drop-in Centre to join Peter and his friends and learn all about Philosophy and the History of Veregin.

On my way back I saw smoke and realized that there may have been embers that were encouraged by the wind to burn the dead grass that was below the spring grass. I called Peter for help and got Tim. David followed sometime later by Peter on his van. Peter never even got out of the van after seeing that his sons were in control of the situation and just proceeded to return home.

Now that was confidence!

That was definitely confirmed when David causally remarked after the fire was out and we were dousing the flames inside us with a beer “so what will you do for excitement this afternoon?”

Yes there will always be pleasant memories that will be recalled.

Cousin Elmer