Although we had a get-together planned on February 26, 2015, Keith was called away on his special journey early February 18, 2015. This call was not to be denied and he, only, could travel solo. He had no opportunity to bid adieu. So it is in circumstances like these, that we stand here feeling that a robbery has been committed. Keith was taken by his Maker and so he was our treasure for a time and now he was obligated to return as has been the practice from time eternal. So it is today!

There was beauty in this relationship that I had experienced with Keith. At no time was there an opportunity to disagree. You might say that Quantum Physics sent coincidental environmental signals to both us almost in harmony. We wanted to do things together and we agreed on the principles, ethics and sociological aspects of all that came upon us. It just seemed obvious that our mates would also get along and all that followed with our children. They also enjoyed each other’s company.

What I will do now is recount the blessings and moments of joy we had together since 1958 when I first met Keith. That is almost 57 years of enjoyment and memories, so let’s not waste time and get on with it.

One of our mutual problems was this farmer who kept coming into town, looking for trouble. If Mitch just looked for it on his own, that would be just fine, but he did not have to do home-work and so he encouraged us to help him find trouble. So it was that trouble came in threes and we started our campaign to find others that were fun-seekers and so the scene was set.

Singing in a Doukhobor Youth Choir was culturally a perfectly healthy pastime for young boys and our parents approved of this without hesitation. Of course, there was the opportunity to check out all these girls that showed up from all parts of Saskatchewan with the same excuse. We considered it our responsibility to take each and every one of them on dates so that none of them would feel left out or rejected. We were very proud of our resolve and did this job with zealous abandon.

As has already been proven many a time, the “grass is greener on the other side of the fence”. I took a fancy to a former neighbor of Keith’s, 250 miles from my former home, and Keith noticed this good-looking blonde from my home town. We both approved of the choices and here we are still together to this day.

After struggling in boarding houses that did not seem to understand the appetite needs of a growing young man, I hit a bonanza when Keith invited me to be his room-mate, in the newly constructed family home on corner of Avenue H and Rushholme. We got the basement suite and I got a loving family that adopted me completely which meant two half-sisters Ruth and Donna, as we eventually joked about. Our land-lady, Susan had a rough voice but the softest heart as she fed and took care of her boys and extended family.

Keith and I always did research on easier ways live. At 11:30 at night, studying became sluggish and a break on our respective cots became a habit. Getting up to turn the light off was tough and so we devised an automatic light switch “turnoffer”. A long shoelace around a textbook that would teeter on the laundry hamper and then looped over the upright switch was the invention.

So at the agreed time, a slipper would be thrown at the wall just above the teetering textbook and “presto, ala kazam”, the textbook was dislodged causing the switch to turn off. Not always was the aim good from the cot located “kiddy-corner” from the switch and so several attempts had to be made using all the available slippers. Sometimes the ammunition had to brought back to repeat the performance. We were very proud of our ingenuity.

There were times when we convinced Mitch that we needed a study weekend and we would be well into it when the door would open and here would enter two to three of our other friends who had not been informed of our dedication to study. Sometimes 5:00 A.M., Sunday morning meant going somewhere to eat and absorb all that malted barley that was the inevitable result.

What was noticeable that no matter what we undertook, we combined enthusiasm with resolve and would get the job done. In later years, if we needed something, we could always rely on each other and we often did so.

It seemed that our mutual families got to know each other better as we continued to visit and enjoy each other’s hospitality over the years. When I had to inform my three daughters and son of Keith’s passing, there was an immediate request to pass along their condolences to the Tarasoff family of three sons and one daughter. Keith and I talked about that one time, so it was okay to duplicate offspring but how was it that we were able to do the exact opposite of each other? Perhaps Quantum Physics again! Looking back now, I realize that both of us never understood what was happening as we lacked the Sexual Health courses in school and our parents neglected to explain all this to us.

Back to the Boarding House and the fact Keith would habitually want to sleep in much to the disdain of our Land Lady, his mother, Susan, that was trying to get out of the house herself to her job. There was a great deal of hollering and rude comments about my room-mate as she was clearing the breakfast dishes, giving up on him. On my way down the stairs, Keith was coming up. I whispered “you are deep in shit” to a seemingly half asleep zombie.

As I hastily threw my stuff into my briefcase and hurried out the door, I hollered at Keith who was just covering his toast with jam “you’re going to miss the bus!”

Well it was just a block to Avenue I where I noticed the bus pulling up to the bus stop. I was a good track star in high school but I just made it to the tail lights as the bus departed. I knew that a block and a half down the bus had another stop and I turned on my “after-burners” as I careened down the hill to see the tail lights flash and the bus was gone.

In despair, I trudged up the hill to wait a half hour for the next bus and be late for class. I noticed Keith just crossing Avenue I to the bus stop. I hollered above the traffic noise “we missed the bus!” He looked at me with a blank face as I walked up to him to repeat my message when the correct bus showed up and we all got on. Keith asked me what my problem was and my answer “oh nothing, I am just having a bad morning when I get up too early.”

The common mutual joke in those days was that when nature called we would agree that, “we should go to Rushholme and P.” I know that most of you hearing this would not understand but in those days the farm fences were located about Avenue P West along Rushholme.

So the years passed and we aged but our friendship matured and grew into a bonding level that included the Ozeroff’s. We would gather, almost yearly, in Canmore, rent a suite and spend the entire time together. Someone may ask, “well what did you do?”

Here is a sample:

• Laugh
• Love
• Sing
• Play cards
• Repeat jokes that we forgot from last time
• Imbibe in liquid spirits
• Eat
• Reminisce
• Our past exploits wee repeated with greater achievement each time, as our aging memories embellished them
• Share our fears and disappointments
• We ended each occasion with a circle where we would hold each other in the advent that we should have someone leave us in the interim before next time
• Keith was the first to physically leave that tight circle

We had all planned to repeat all this on February 26, 2015 in Calgary and now we are here in Canora, instead.

One year we all decided to bake bread together at the museum in Veregin where Keith and Sonia directed us in the entire process of grinding the brown bread flour to mixing the dough, kneading and placing into pans. All required careful preparation and sequencing. Keith taught me the essentials of making the fire in the oven and the care that was necessary to ensure an even heating of the oven brick work. There was testing to determine when the oven was ready to receive the 30 loaves.

I wanted to build an oven in Whatshan and so I took measurements of that oven designed by Nick Trofemenkoff. Keith pointed out the arching at the rear of the oven that permits the fire to “roll” along the rear gable and then over the roof and down to continually repeat itself. I wondered where our Doukhobor ancestors got all this Stationary Engineering expertise?

I was unsuccessful in building an oven similar to that built by my grandfather Summa Morozoff, as described by my mother. So I shared that story with Keith and Sonia and they drove out to Whatshan in 2014 with many loaves baked in Veregin, to demonstrate the possibilities of that cusine. This was enjoyed by all. The greatest pleasure was for Marilyn and I in that our friends were able to experience this project that we kept talking about. Keith took responsibility for cooking the Shisliki in the Saskatchewan style and along with the Doukhobor bread, the 100 people there are still talking about it.

We watched as Keith and Sonia took a great pride in renovating the former Dergosuoff house that was located across the pond from my birthplace North East of Canora. We especially enjoyed the great socials there as they continued to beautify the farm with an ambitious and gigantic garden.

Keith, you were the Best Man at Marilyn’s and my wedding and you will continue, in my interpretation, of Best Men, with which I will be continuing to work with.

To Sonia, Greg, Glen, Corine and Brent, we bring our condolences. The extended family and friends are feeling your loss but you must accept that Keith lived a full life and he loved you all.

He is where there is no pain, no worries and ever-lasting life, to continue serving his Maker.

Written by Elmer Verigin February 22, 2015