Peggy Margaret Chamberlin, born Margaret Sarah Alice Nickel, died peacefully on October, 2022 at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, leaving her gracious touch on the hearts and memories of those who knew her.

The twelfth surviving child of first generation immigrants Henry and Susanna Nickel, she came into this world on a prairie winter day January 16, 1931, at home on the family’s pioneer homestead in Herbert Saskatchewan. Known for her gifted voice and lovely choir solos sung shyly from behind the curtains at church, and her feisty nature outside of church, she grew up surrounded by the care of her nine older sisters and two brothers, after her father died when she was an infant.

Leaving home at 16, after painting the house to earn money to buy shoes, she headed for the nearest big city, Regina, where she quickly became the valued employee of a fatherly Dry Cleaning business owner after increasing his customers with her friendly charm. It was the same magnetic personality that magnetized her husband to be, Larry, a handsome young soldier, there to have his shirts laundered. So strong was her magnetic attraction that he refused to leave until she gave him her phone number, which the business owner entreated her to do after Larry announced that he would just wait there as long as it took.

Their 1949 wedding was held on the record breaking coldest day Regina has ever seen -- and that is saying something – on her mother’s birthday December 17.

Their daughter, Patricia, was born in 1951 but shortly thereafter fate parted the newly weds for a year as he served as a machinist in the Korean War. Larry arranged for her and their new baby girl to live with his family in Wakefield, Quebec, the picturesque village on a bend in the Gatineau River where Larry’s ancestors had settled and  operated  the Chamberlin and Son General Store  for generations.

One day a gift from Korea arrived in the mail and Peggy opened it to find a lovely machined metal pagoda shaped box, and the next day a letter from Larry arrived instructing her to look in the packing tissue paper of the pagoda.

Mortified that she had thrown away all the packing paper she urgently sifted through the entire household garbage of several homes just before it was going to be hauled to the dump. What she found in the paper wad was pagoda shaped diamond engagement ring, which she emotionally put on her finger and never took off for the rest of the 71 years of their marriage.

Larry’s return saw the birth of their son, Rodney, and “before the ink was dry” on Rod’s birth certificate their second son Ronald was born. Family life stepped up its pace for the young couple living in Regina’s “Army Patch”.

The Army years bounced Peggy and Larry and their young family around the country, including a REME (Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineer) assignment in Virginia, as well as the tent villages of many rifle ranges where Larry distinguished himself as Canada’s top marksman and became personal guard to the young Queen Elizabeth when she visited her namesake city, Regina.

When it was time to leave Army life behind, Peggy and Larry, loaded up the truck and moved to Ottawa, the nearest big city to the Chamberlin family in Wakefield,

At the provincial border, leaving Saskatchewan, Larry got out of the truck and standing at salute on the side of the Trans Canada Highway thanked the prairie province for providing him with his wonderful wife and family. Saskatchewan in turn had a parting gift for the couple, and their third son, Ross, was born the following June.

From this point on in their new start-over, Peggy and Larry lived one life, partners in every sense of the word, working side by side 24/7 to launch and build Larry’s Driving School, which became the nationally distinguished driver safety training program. Larry often credited the rapid and growing success of the business to Peggy’s charm on the phone with prospective students.

Buying their first home in the Crystal Beach area, to raise their family, grow old and die in, was Peggy’s dream. And it was indeed a dream come true. For over 60 years that bungalow at 21 Roche Place, was their sanctuary.

Peggy called it her home base, and In between homeruns they spent their time “running the bases”, from leisure days at their summer cottage on “the best fishing lake in the country”, 31 Mile Lake, to their winter snowbird trailer in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Larry’s dream was to retire financially secure at age 40. Looking back over their richly rewarding lives in a multitude of ways, it makes us all proud and envious at the same time that this couple got to spend over half of their lives in retirement.

By then the four children had long ago flown the nest, each living their own rewarding lives. Pat had two wonderful children, Darryl and Andrea, and moved to Arizona where she earned her stripes as an international award winning author of several books, Rod  became a Millwright at EB Eddy paper mill, then a self employed appliance repairman and father of two girls, Jessica and Julia.  Ron was the sojourner, wandering Canada and finally settling down in Victoria where he proudly sold hotdogs to tourists from his stand on the waterfront. Ross’s recognized work as a Public Health and Safety expert for the Federal Government and Private Sector is still evident today all around the Parliament Hill area.

But no matter how far as some of the apples fell from the Chamberlin family free, each of their children was proud to say at the slightest opportunity that yes, indeed their elderly parents were still alive and well and even still living in the home that they’d grown up in.

Larry passed away at home age 90, and his Memorial service was held to a full house even in the midst of the CoVid pandemic in 2021, with everyone in attendance singing the songs that Larry and Peggy had sung on so many roadtrips. Just as love stories go, Peggy died just over a year later.

Peggy and Larry are survived by three of their four children, Pat, Rod and Ross, as well as their four grandchildren, Darryl, Andrea, Jessica and Julia, and six great grandchildren, Andrea’s children Corban, Kayley, and Kendal, Darryl’s children Jacob and Anna, and Julia’s firstborn son Jones.

Peggy is also survived by her devoted sister Rachael, and Larry by his loving sister Marilyn.

The heartfelt Graveside Memorial service for Peggy will take place in the Spring/Summer of 2024 in the Pinecrest Cemetery in Ottawa, after the spring thaw, so that she and Larry her husband of 71 years, can be laid to rest together.

Please RSVP by leaving a comment here if you wish to attend the Graveside Memorial so we can notify you of the details when they are confirmed. Or simply leave a note here in memory.

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