Remembering Don Kaye
Bert Moniz recalls 1960 starter Don Kaye
To my wise friend Don.
Don Kaye. Enlightened beyond his years. With an abnormally sharp memory and turn of phrase.
Don left England for Canada, slipping away from a tight band of ex-schoolmates. He’d cross the pond from time to time to gather and re-bond.
Don and I, we palled around. We’d visit a Sikh restaurant on Queen Street in Toronto, chomping on tandoori from a clay oven prepared the day before. Most of all he loved the Lahore Tikka House on Gerrard Street in Little India and waxed poetic about the menu.
Don married Mary whom he met in Montreal. She worked for the transcontinental railway company and had practical knowledge of locomotives. They bought a home on the east side near Greek Town that she remodeled.
Waxing poetic was Don’s forte. One Christmas our family came from the US and stayed at their remodeled home. It was Saturday morning. I clearly remember Don in dressing gown positioned in the kitchen atrium. He picked up the Toronto Globe and Mail and shook it open.
A short pause, and he began to read segments of news in a priceless selection of accents.
Pure Sacha Baron Cohen. Wasted talent on a man who chose to go into banking!
We age. Health issues compound. For example, we were common prostate cancer survivors. By then, physical separation had reduced our contact to the odd meeting and phone call.
One day Mary told me Don had been in hospital and the prognosis was not good. His life no longer in his control, things were not pleasant.
Don came home to the home that Mary had remodeled. And then, a great orator fell silent.
Don and I were classmates in our last year of primary school anof course for our time at st Mary’s. On leaving school we both worked for banks in the city. We shared many social adventures and holidays with others from our years at st Mary’s. Don would always keep us amused with his antics.
I went to Toronto with Don and we shared an apartment for the 5 years I stayed in Toronto.
After I left I stayed in contact with him and enjoyed his company when he visited home or I visited Toronto.