SON ‘WALKING’ IN MEMORY OF MISSIONARY DAD ROLAND
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
MUSKOKA — Roland Perret had a “very interesting life” before succumbing to the effects of Alzheimer’s at age 91.
A missionary who “felt called to India,” he was “very bright,” said his son Merrill, a retired Air Canada pilot who lives in Port Sydney and is taking part in this Sunday’s virtual Muskoka and national “walk” for Alzheimer’s.
Merrill is a volunteer with the Muskoka Alzheimer’s Society, helping with their Mind in Motion weekly drop-in program in Bracebridge.
Roland was “smart and wise” for kid forced to leave school after Grade 8 to help on the family farm, said Merrill.
And he had a “great sense of humour.”
Roland was particularly adept at linguistics, scoring 100 per cent in them at Bible college in Regina.
That’s where the northern Saskatchewan farm boy met his future wife, Betty, and where they both became ordained ministers in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.
After a few years preaching in small churches Canadian churches in Kamloops and Prince William, the Perrets heeded their calling to India, where they did more than preach the word of God for 30 years.
Pastoring their flock included providing “adult literacy” and “simple first-aid.”
Merrill said in remote regions of central India they used “sulpha powder” to treat people and administered eye drops that helped avoid blindness.
The Perrets had arrived in south Asia just after the 1947 Partition of India.
Merrill remembers his dad telling him a story about being in a train station where Muslims and Hindus crossed paths — while being forced to migrate east and west — and how it became a blood bath as they rioted in what Merrill says was “religious insanity.”
The Perrets returned to Canada about every five years for a sabbatical, but always returned.
Merrill was born there, along with his sister, Sharon. Their brother Robin, who was born in Canada, returned to India with his parents.
Merrill, who was born in 1951, grew up in India and went to a Baccalaureate boarding school in Kodaikanal, 1,000 miles away from where his parents were missionaries at the Nazarene Missionary Hospital in Basim. When the family returned home after Grade 10, Merrill stayed in Canada to finish school and pursue a long flying career and retiring with Air Canada.
Merrill returned to India two years ago with his own son for the a 50th class reunion.
The Perrets eventually returned to Canada, where Roland became a very good administrator of his old Bible college for a few years before retiring to Kelowna.
He died there Oct. 15, 2012. Betty, his wife of 48 years, predeceased him of cancer in 1994.
Roland was survived by three children and his second wife, Nita, who died May, 5, 2019. She was 90.
Nita and Roland were married 14 years and she — a retired nurse — nursed him at home almost to the end, said Merrill.
“She took care of him as long as she could,” said Merrill, “but she couldn’t keep it up.”
Roland died in hospital in a coma after a couple of weeks.
“He just quietly quit breathing,” said Merrill.
He had quit eating and his organs slowly shut down.
Roland had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2005.
“We suspected something,” said Merrill.
“He would pick up the remote control and try to answer it” — thinking it was the cordless phone.
“He knew he had it,” said Merrill.
“How awful — to be aware of your own diagnosis.
“It bothered me.”
That’s why he has been volunteering with the Muskoka Alzheimer’s Society (MAS) (“mostly making coffee”) since moving to Port Sydney and building a new home and life as a musician there a few years ago.
And why he has been out walking his dog Andy (a half Terrier and half Shi Tzu — along South Mary Lake Road — as part of his fundraising for Sunday’s MAS virtual walk.
See his participant fundraising page here and a the MAS website here.
He has also created a video to be posted Sunday by MAS, which he made of his journey in memory of his dad, Roland.
Email mark@muskokatoday.com
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