Pete and Hennie Vellenga

Pete and Hennie Vellenga
Ted's Parents

It is a parents’ worst nightmare—come true. When we spoke with Ted earlier that week to find out his plans for coming home, he said he would be home late afternoon, around suppertime. When it was 7 p.m., we thought maybe he had trouble with his truck, or issues with his dog Jack. At 9 p.m. we started to get a knot in our stomachs because we didn’t hear from him, and Pete said, this doesn’t look good. At 10 pm. Pete told me to go to bed and he would lay on the couch and wait for Ted so he could help him with his luggage and Jack. Around midnight he heard a car pull in the driveway and thought, hesitantly, “Oh Ted’s home! He looked out the window first and when he saw the 2 policemen, he knew. All the policemen knew was it was a head on collision – these policemen were from our region, not the region where the accident took place. And, we could call the investigating officer to find out more details at 6 a.m. What happened was the vehicle behind Ted saw him move into the oncoming lane of traffic. In their investigation the police have no idea why this happened.

Our emotions have been like a rollercoaster. We know some of Ted’s earthly struggles, and it comforts us greatly that he is now in heaven free from this. Ted’s grandmother (Pete’s Mom) passed away in the early morning of Dec 22. We had decided to tell Ted this when he got home. They met in heaven.

We are deeply touched by the prayers, cards, flowers, words of comfort, memories and stories shared by SO many people who knew Ted. We’ve often heard people tell about the power of prayer - it is sooo true. We are experiencing this in a very real way.

You know Ben, when you wrote about Ted and shared your memories of him, you were right on! This past Sunday Pete and I and our 2 children, Heidi and Tim went up to Penetanguishene to gather Ted’s belongings from his apartment. Ted would prefer to bike or walk, than drive his truck. In the kitchen we found his bike – dismantled. In one of his tires he had put screws to work like studs so he could ride his bike in the snow. I think he would have done the same to the other tire. He has had this bicycle for about 10 years and when he left Kalamazoo in September, I said “ you have to take that bike back to Ontario with you”.

We are proud of Ted and incredibly grateful that he has meant a lot to so many people. We miss him dearly.

We want to thank everyone who has entered their memory in this blog. It is a great comfort to us. Our daughter-in-law will transfer this blog to a hard drive and gather these stories to put in a binder so we can read them again and again.

Pete and Hennie Vellenga