The story of Davey.

Dave has always been an amazing person. He was born that way! Such a gifted talented soul. To this day Dave was good at literally everything. My memories of him are of this exciting busy kid/teen/then man who would always find some interesting activity to keep himself busy. 

He would literally spend hours watching ants carry food through tunnels, up and around the sides of sand dunes at our man made pond on our farm in Beeton. He would gently slice the sand hill on the side to reveal a series of tunnels. He would watch as hundreds of ants were moving food and eggs through the tunnels. This experience is engraved in my mind. I was privileged to see it once. I'm two years younger and wasn't allowed to have the freedom he had as he was so mature and responsible for his age.. What an incredible sight! He was always creating, building or looking for fun. 

He had a colt name Ben. A beautiful carmel and white horse. His also had a cat named Tom who we thought was a male but turned out to be a female who gave birth to a litter of kittens. Someone clearly made an error in gender determination. Davey was never mean to me, but did make me cry uncontrolably by not sharing his kittens with me. 

He was always active. I never saw him just sitting around - Ever!! He was constantly thinking about his next adventure.

 He was blessed at a young age to be our Dad's buddy and at the tender age of two would help our Dad take care of all the farm animals at Center island where my Dad worked..

He loved animals so much that every time we ate meat he would ask our Dad what animal it came from then wouldn't eat the meat. It's something he carried with him his whole life.  

One of our favorite things to do would be to ride our giant pig Sam. Dave was a pro of course. I'm sure his long legs and arms helped. Then one day Sam was gone! My Dad never really explained where he went, but there was a period of time when we ate a lot of pork. We missed Sam!

Dave was such a handsome kid. I mean movie star looks! He was always successful in all he did and of course won first prize for a apple pie he baked and entered at the Beeton country fair at the age of 10. We never ate that pie. It proudly sat on the counter until it started to get fuzzy inside.  Everything he did he put his whole heart and soul into it.

Angels were with him. When he was around the age of 9 or 10 he almost lost his life. He would go with our Dad to work at night delivering bulk newspaper packages. One night he asked our Dad to lay down in the back of the station wagon with the newspapers and sleep. This was a common thing for him to do but one night our Dad said no, so Dave slept in the front seat. When Dad made a stop to drop off some papers Dave was sound a sleep and Dad left him in the car. A few moments later a drunk driver hit the car crushing the back end of the car like an slinky which resulted in the back bumper touching the front seats. Dave was sleeping in the front but was not hurt. It was not his time to go! God protected him with not a scratch on him.

Dave was always good at sports. Played hockey and he was fast!!!  He continued in adult league and really enjoyed it. He took figure skating which of course he excelled in as a kid to improve his skating and balance. He was an amazing bowler and won many trophys. One of his first kid jobs(age 12) was to set up the bowling pins after then were knocked down. I guess that really dates him...lol  He excelled in gymnastic s and had his name and photo in the newspaper. Artistic talent he had that too. He excelled in art at Weston C.I. in Toronto. I was amazed at what he could do with just a paper and a pencil. He was so incredibly talented

In his mid teens around 16-17 Dave and his friend Paul started  a landscaping business. They needed something to drive around in and take their lawnmowers and tools with them. They cut my moms old car in half behind the front seats removing the roof and trunk and made it into a flat bed truck. I'm sure it was Dave's idea. I'm not sure if it met MTO standards, but It looked amazing. It never surprised me what he could do.

He always loved music but it really took off in his early teens after we joined the York Lions Steel Band. Dave played the base drums and cellos. In 1976 we started investigating the Mormon church. Our band leader was not too happy about it and told us to choose the band or the church. So we chose the church (which shaped our lives and that of our children) and with Dave's money he bought a few steel drums and a drum set and we started our own Steel band just for the fun of it. Dave, Lorraine Heise Fukamoto and I. We started to grow and became the LDS Steel Orchestra and then the Sounds of Steel. Later on Dave sold the drums to help pay for his mission to Baton Rouge Mississippi. His transportation on his mission was a bike. He loved it! Not only did Dave grow in his testimony I think he grew 6 inches in height. We missed him so much but we were proud of him. He left at 19 and came back at 21.

When he came back the girls were swirling around him but within a year he found his dream girl - Ruth. A few years earlier he had seen a polish girl on a record album and said he had the feeling he was going to marry a girl that looked like her and he did! The second he set his eyes on Ruth he knew that she was the one and he wanted to marry her. He just had to convince her with his charm. On their first date he drove her in my car that had no heat, wore these big black rubber boots (size 14) that he wore over his shoes (great for his mission, not so good for a first date) that had a big buckle on the side like little kids boots and paid everything with a big wad of $1 bills. She saw through his charm... lol... so I guess it was true love and she agreed to a second date. Almost 38 years later, 5 kids and soon to be 12 grandchildren Ruth has remained his center of his world and the love of his life. Gods plan was fulfilled! And Dave got his girl and added two more generations of amazing Mifsud's to our family tree. 

When I was 4 years old I was tobogganing with Dave. I was hit by a a metal flying saucer and hit on the lip. I was bleeding and crying. Dave the great big brother that he was at the age of 6 took care of me. He told me to lay on the toboggan and he would pull me home. Now 34 years later and in the hospital 3 weeks ago with cancer weakening him he was concerned and wanted to make sure I could hear and got up out of his chair with limited mobility just to attach a speaker to my chair so I could hear. It was such a touching moment to me.

My first love. My big brother. My first best friend! My hero! The person who I always looked up to and now have to look a little higher. The bond and closeness that I felt with him during his last week on this earth was so powerful and meaningful, but most of all sacred. It's something very few of us get to experience. I have been so truly blessed and I am sooo grateful to my Sister-in-Law Ruth, David, April, Michael, Haley and Anna for giving me the privilege to spend this past week with them and Dave and now to be able to share my thoughts about him. I love you all so much, words will never be enough!

Dave you will be missed more than you will ever know. You will forever hold such a dear part in my heart. Not only because you are my brother but because you are such an amazing soul! But for now my big brother, I said good bye to you in heaven when you came down to this earth. Now again I say goodbye as you return back to our Heavenly home! I love you my dear brother! Forever engraved in my heart!