Ken & Rosalie
Ken and Rosalie, now in their 70s, are getting ready for their 45th anniversary river cruise in France this month.
Both Saskatchewanians, they met there in 1975 when she was working at a Saskatoon architect’s office, and Ken, who worked nearby, popped in to pick up some mail for his office during a Canada-wide postal strike.
“He was handsome, and I was friendly,” recalls Rosalie. “I thought she was cute,” adds Ken, who then called her up and invited her out for a drink. That drink turned into dinner and dancing a few nights later. By 1978, they were married.
During their five years together in Saskatchewan, they managed to build their own home on an acreage with 500 trees, a vegetable garden and lots of Saskatoon berry bushes. They also found time to sail on Lake Diefenbaker, ski in Alberta and fly around in small planes that Ken piloted. “We once dropped in for dinner at my family’s place, by plane,” chuckles Rosalie.
“We taught each other all kinds of things then,” she adds. “He showed me how to fish and canoe, and I taught him to ski. We taught each other how to sail.”
By 1983, with an infant daughter in tow, the small family moved to Victoria, where they started a business, designing and building homes. Their second daughter came along a year later.
Somehow, during that busy time, they also managed to run a farm in Brentwood, outside Victoria. Apart from horses, they had 26 cattle and a bull. Plus, a field of hay. “We went there every day for years, from our Victoria home, and ran the farm as well as the business.”
The couple continued their love of sailing on west coast waters until Rosalie told Ken one day that she’d “like to go cruising without a personal captain.”
The active couple took their daughters on road trips across Canada and the US while they were growing up. After that, they travelled extensively on their own, by road or by sea. For their 40th anniversary, they toured Pacific Rim countries for 40 days by cruise ship.
Nowadays they continue to stay active, both mentally and physically. Ken takes care of their financial and business affairs, and Rosalie writes and publishes children’s books (My Little Owl). Since the pandemic, she has also been working on historical fiction (Maggie’s Boy).
“Getting older has its challenges, but if you stay active and creative, it can help you age gracefully,” says Rosalie, still grateful for the postal strike that delivered Ken into her office all those years ago.
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