Lloyd and Mary Augustus were among the first
residents of the new Chartwell Classic Robert
Speck retirement home when it opened last fall
in Mississauga, Ontario. “I fell in love with the
suite,” says Mary, 87. The spacious end unit, with
a living room, den and bedroom, has windows
on three sides. “It’s so very bright. And the
wonderful views!” Though close to the city centre,
the retirement residence overlooks a peaceful
ravine, where the couple regularly stroll along its
landscaped walkways.
Lloyd and Mary could have waited for nicer
weather before they moved, but they decided it
didn’t make sense to wait. “We’re not impulsive
people, but we don’t like to wait around either,”
Mary explains. “For health reasons, we needed to
have some support.”
Lloyd and Mary Augustus at Chartwell Robert Speck
Andrew Stawicki
Lloyd, who turns 90 in May, has undergone
treatment for bladder cancer. “We thought it was
time we got to a place where they had medical
assistance right in the building,” he says. The
residence has nursing staff 24 hours a day, and
there’s always a doctor on call. Lloyd’s health
has improved dramatically since moving to the
residence. “I feel just fine, with no problems and
no pain,” he says. He joins the exercise class five
days a week.
The couple, married for 66 years, enjoy keeping
their minds sharp while socializing with their
like-minded neighbours. There’s often a game
of Scrabble, bridge or euchre, a stimulating
discussion of current events (Mary’s a political
junkie) or a meeting of the book club. Lloyd,
whose career progressed from a one-room country
school teacher to area superintendent for the
Etobicoke Board of Education, and Mary, a retired
kindergarten teacher, are people of letters—
literally. During Lloyd’s wartime stint as a major
with a British Columbia regiment, he and Mary
wrote to one another every day. Some of their 700
letters, which had been tied up in blue ribbon for
more than half a century, have been immortalized
in a poignant sculptural work, entitled “Writing
to You” in St. Julien Square, a small pedestrian
mews in Vancouver, British Columbia. When it’s
suggested that such a quantity of letters, written
and saved, must signify true love, Lloyd says,
“That’s what we tell everybody.”
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