Ray loved reading the obituary columns every day, and joke: thank goodness my name is not in it. Today, his name is in it. But this obituary is not about his death but about his life and my love letter to my partner and lover of 51 years. At 73 years young his corporal death took place at 8:15 pm on May 17. Born in a small house in rural Ontario (then Chinguacousy Township) Ray was the eldest of four. He then moved just one kilometre north into our then and still new home. Our house and family grew in unison, bit by bit. We met in July of 1963 at The Sorrento, the restaurant my parents ran. I was 17 and he was 19. He taught me how to make a milkshake. He’d come by more and more often, buying cigarettes even though at that time he didn’t smoke. We became friends long before we loved each other. He always treated me as his princess, right until the end. We embraced the addition of every child we brought into our growing family, which grew to a household of 21 children. He worked so hard to support us, often taking shifts with a sick or crying child after working overnight shifts. Our marriage (April 1 1967) May sound long but it wasn’t long enough. We always clung to having more time. In 1971 John joined our family and in 1973 Kristan arrived. 1975 brought our daughter Ticey from Vietnam and later that year came our son David. December of 1977 came Doreen followed by Joshua in June of 1978 and Linda helped us celebrate The Year of the Child in 1979. What a year we had in 1980 with the adventures of becoming parents to teens when Jamie, Tom, Michael, Liza and Phyllis came. June of 1981 brought us our bubbly one-year-old daughter Talli from Montreal and just a few weeks later came Patrick. Michelle, then 11, came in 1984 in the middle of the construction to make our house larger and August of that year came our son Daniel from Hong Kong. By May of 1985 our three-year-old daughter Miriam finally arrived, who we met as a baby and loved her while we waited. In June 1986 Elisha and Desi came, soon followed by our baby boy Damien, making them child 18, 19 and 20. It was seven years later that our family was complete by our youngest daughter Jessikah. Outside of our immediate family we had a lot of important people around. Robert, Andrea (died in 2014), Stephanie and Johnna meant the world to him, as did his sister Helen (died in 2013), Eric, Trevor, Andrew and Jeffrey. What a blast we all had at the Berman’s cottage for those amazing 10 years. My parents, Giovanni Ruocco (1987) and Anna Pepe (1977) adored Ray. He was predeceseased by his parents, John (1992) and Dorothy (2011) and has two remaining sisters. Our children are all adults now with their amazing lives with wonderful spouses: Desi and Alex, Josh and Amy, Jessikah and Sunny, Kristan and Oral, Talli and Pat, EJ and Samreh. Our wonderful grandchildren: Destyni, Bianca, David, Kiara (died 2006), Izzy, Nola, Anastasia and Dakota, Roshina and Arianna and great grandchildren Abel, Rosalie and Wild. Our home became a vital centre full of amazing friends: Janice and Derek Martin, the Campbell clan: Corinne, Lindsay, Lee-Anne and beautiful Shadae. Fate brought us Alana Taylor and her three beautiful daughters: Alexia, Alyssa and Carter. Ray also loved and was loved by all animals, and for 20 years we ran a pet rescue called Finally Home. My hope is that he’s surrounded by his beloved pets long past. Cremation has taken place and, as Ray wished, no funeral will be held. Instead, on Fathers Day (June 17) a celebration of his life will take place at 1 pm at the house Ray built and so loved.