The Art Of Staying Put

More than 90 per cent of Canadians want to live at home as long as possible. Here’s how to make it work.

- Claire Sibonney

EDNA AND WIMSY Sinnatamby, 83 and 87, have lived in their modest Toronto townhome for more than three decades. It was the first house they bought in Canada, and it’s filled with treasured photos.

There are pictures of the couple at Wimsy’s 80th birthday celebration, alongside their three adult sons and four granddaughters. There are pictures of recent family reunions in Singapore, where the Sri Lankan couple has family, the women posing in dazzling saris. And then there is a faded eight-by-10 print of a much younger Wimsy, dressed in a fitted black suit and skinny tie, next to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The photo was taken two years before Wimsy and Edna fled to Canada to escape the civil war between their minority ethnic group, the Tamils, and the majority Sinhalese.

The couple gave up their financial stability to move here back in 1983, but eventually worked their way up to stable jobs: Wimsy in the credit-card-fraud department at one of the big banks and Edna as a home-daycare owner.

These days, the couple have real estate agents knocking on their door regularly, trying to persuade them to sell, but they wouldn’t dream of it. “I say, ‘Could I come live with you? Because I wouldn’t have anywhere to go,’” jokes Wimsy. Besides, he and Edna have found a community here.

When Wimsy slipped and fell a couple of years ago, badly injuring his forehead, a neighbor arrived before the paramedics did. And when he got a hip replacement, friends and church members took turns driving Edna to and from the hospital. Over the decades, they’ve built a good life. And so, they want to stay.