Stanley Suddard was born on Oct. 3, 1943. Ten days later, Grant McQuarrie followed. Their mothers were friends, and so were the two boys. Growing up in the small rural community of Whitby, Ont., the two boys were “inseparable.”
“Since we started walking, we have been friends,” said McQuarrie. “We ended up in school together, so we went around all through our childhood and adolescent years. We got to do all the stuff that you’re not supposed to do.”
From playing in the barn, milking cows, picking boulders off the field and chasing girls, the two did it all together.
However, as the years went by, the two boys – now young men – went their separate ways. At 18, Suddard married his first wife, while McQuarrie set out to explore new horizons.
“Once Stan got married, he settled down and everything,” said McQuarrie. “I was still a teenager, so I carried on, doing my things, and we slowly separated.”
In the early ‘60s, McQuarrie left Whitby to work with his uncle in the mines of Sudbury. But after a while, he realized the mining life wasn’t for him, so the young man headed west, taking on a variety of jobs along the way.
From pipeline work in Alberta’s oil fields to construction across Western Canada and shifts at a remote paper mill in Ocean Falls, McQuarrie enjoyed life as a young, single man travelling the country.
Eventually, he settled in Calgary, where he spent 30 years with the fire department before retiring and moving to Vancouver Island in 1995.
As for Suddard, he spent five years at General Motors’ Oshawa assembly line. Yet, being stuck between four walls, doing a repetitive job wasn’t for him.
When the plant shut down for a major upgrade, Suddard took the opportunity to change direction. He began working at a local gas station to make ends meet and eventually left GM behind to pump gas and work on cars.
“Needless to say, my family was not really impressed, but that was good money back then,” he said, smiling.
A few years later, Suddard remarried and had two daughters. As “one thing led to another,” eventually he and his wife, Audrey, bought three stations between Brockville and Mallorytown before deciding to scale back to a single gas station and restaurant, which Audrey ran.
Fast forward to 2023, McQuarrie, now living in Sidney, had just turned 80. Lingering at the back of his mind was the decades-old question of whether to call his old friend.
“I’ve lost two sisters in the last couple of years and we’re all getting older,” McQuarrie said. “At that age, we’ve both got our ailments and things start to creep up on you. I thought ‘Jesus, if I don’t do it now, one of us might not be here next year.”
One day, after receiving Suddard’s phone number from an extended family member back in Ontario, McQuarrie decided to finally pick up his phone. He dialed the number, and after a few rings, his childhood friend answered.
That single call broke 62 years of silence.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Suddard. “I must admit, I thought about Grant every so often, wondering how he was doing out there.”
Although the first phone calls were “subdued,” the two warmed up. What began as tentative conversations grew into a two-year correspondence
As they chatted about the old days, shared memories, and their lives since, McQuarrie casually suggested one day that Suddard come visit him out west.
Jumping at the offer, the Ontario man and his wife booked two train tickets and travelled to Vancouver last October, just days after both men’s birthdays. Following the cross-country trip, McQuarrie met Suddard at the Swartz Bay ferry terminal on Oct. 27.
It was the first time the two had seen each other in 64 years.
Over the next three days, the two men spent time exploring Greater Victoria and catching up on a lifetime of stories.
Though nearly 5,000 kilometres now separate them, the reunion rekindled a friendship that had been silent for decades. Unsure when they will meet again, both men said they wished they’d reconnected 20 years earlier, but agreed it’s never too late to rediscover an old friend.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Suddard’s wife as the two friends glanced at childhood pictures. “It’s just one of the nicest things I can think of happening.”