SLAVEN, Thomas
Born 22 November 1932 in Paisley, Scotland, left this world on 31 December 2019
to join his beloved wife, Elizabeth “Betty†Slaven. He was raised by his parents Thomas and
Catherine, as well as his sisters Esther, Moira, and Anna. With Betty, his family grew to include
Thomas and Linda, William and Martha, Michele and Ron, and Katie and Ross. Eventually, he
even babysat a few grandkids: Leslie, Arran, Olivia, James and Kevin. Great grandfather of Olivia.
We love you and we miss you already, Pops.
In his last days, he welcomed into his family Novelette (Jamaica), Queen (Nigeria), and
Moein (Iran)—caregivers who blessed us all. We were grateful to once again have Dr. Jennifer
Arvanitis, who helped our Betty in her last days, help our Pops in his.
Pops wrote out his life story before he died. It was written in just 891 words on four,
small pages, and even then, most of the fourth page is “a little bit†of Betty’s life story. We
decided to share some of what he wrote here:
“This is just a short story of my life. I was born in the town of Paisley, Scotland, on
the 22nd of Nov. 1932… The house had gas lighting and cold running water… At
age 10… we had moved to a new house with electric light and hot & cold running
water. At 12 1/2 yrs old I went to St. Mirin’s Academy till age 14 yrs, then left
school… When I was sixteen, my pals Frank Collins, and Joe Leitch [and I] went to
the dancing. Frank’s sister Isabel, Betty, and Nell Glen went [too]… So we met up
with them. It was Scotch country dancing, we called it old time dancing, with some
modern dances. That was how I met Betty, I was the young one, so I never felt I
had a chance with Betty, I fancied her from the first night we met. But really I never
had the money to ask her out. At that time I had 4 shillings pocket money, the
dancing was 2 shillings 9 six pence, which left 1 shilling 9 six pence for the rest of
the week… I left for Canada on the 26th of March [1954] from Glasgow, on an
American ship… It was carrying 30,000 cases of Scotch, but being an American
you couldn’t get a drink… One night I went round to Betty’s house [after returning
to Scotland in 1957], as I had met her brother James here in Canada, I said I would
go and see his parents, and Betty… On the last night before I was coming back to
Canada, we had a party. So I asked Moira & Anna to ask Betty to come over on
their way home from the 2 to 10 shift. After the party I walked her home, we stood
outside and talked… Betty said her father would be coming home from the
midnight shift soon so I took [off] home after asking if I could write to her… We
decided to get engaged on her birthday the 29th July 1958… I was sending Betty a
suit… The jacket had three buttons, so Anna [who I was staying with in Toronto]
took the middle one off, she put the [engagement] ring between the material and
sewed the button back on. And that’s the way Betty got her ring. [Betty arrived from
Scotland on the Saturday morning on the 8th of August.] We were going to get
married the following February, but Betty heard that if we married before the end of
the year, I would get a tax rebate. [So, we got married on the 27th of December,
1958.]â€
So was the life of Thomas Slaven.
Visitation at PAUL O’CONNOR FUNERAL HOME, 1939 Lawrence Ave. E. (between Pharmacy and Warden) on Sunday from 3-5 & 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass on Monday January 6, 2020 at 10 a.m. in Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church (Victoria Park south of Ellesmere). Interment Highland Memory Gardens.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care.
2020
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de SLAVEN
Thomas
November 1932
–
December 2019..
Paul O’Connor Funeral Home Limited
Décès pour la Ville:Scarborough, Province: Ontario