Catching a Nazi…Losing a Friend…

Peter Muller was my best friend from the early days of Public School right into High School. We did everything together and he almost lived at my house. He would be there for lunch, dinner, and Special events like my Parent’s Anniversary parties. I didn’t know Peter’s parents at all.

Unlike my Mom who was a Grade Mother and took every opportunity to join us as a chaperone on school trips, Peter’s parents never seemed to be involved. In fact when it came to athletic competitions or school plays they never showed up. I met Mrs. Muller once at the Sunnybrook Supermarket and she didn’t have a lot to say to me. She was quiet and basically ignored the fact I existed My Mom was also there grocery shopping. Peter seemed somewhat embarrassed that his Mom wasn’t very warm, but that didn’t stop us from throwing a honey melon around the aisles like a football. When a store employee started to yell at us, my Mom walked over and simply said, ‘’Don’t worry about it, this is how I determine if a melon is ripe. I’m buying it, the boys were doing me a favour.’’ That was my Mom. Peter’s Mother didn’t come near the scene.

In High School, Peter was my ‘’Ride or Die’’ guy, we did everything together and I considered him my closest friend on the planet. In Grade nine, we both had a crush on Marg Liscal and that didn’t work out very well for either of us. She ignored us both to become the girlfriend of Paul Camliki who was a jerk, but we both agreed that you can’t win them all and went back to normal life.

My Dad was a very entrepreneurial guy and like my Grandfather and Uncle, he loved building. So, as soon as my family immigrated to Canada we got into the home building business and they grew the business to a substantial size. Peter and I both had summer jobs with the company and we did very well. We were both saving for University.

I was planning to go to Carleton University in Ottawa for the Journalism program and Peter wanted to go to Queens University in Kingston for a law degree. He had dreamed of being a Lawyer for as long as I could remember.

As mentioned earlier Pete spent a ton of time at my house and he always felt comfortable and welcome. The same wasn’t true at his place and one day I found out why and it was devastating. Mr. and Mrs. Muller both worked for General Motors. My…