EDITOR’S NOTE: Manitoulin is being transformed with the influx of new residents and business owners who bring with them fresh ideas, experiences and perspectives that are enriching the area. Some individuals and families are still unpacking boxes, having only moved in the past month or two, while others made the move over the last few years and are now comfortably established in their new communities. Here is one of their stories.
Aviation movies have been a Hollywood mainstay for decades and more than a few of them have centred around couples whose relationships soared after meeting at airports. But even scripts for movies such as Up in the Air and Love Takes Flight cannot rival the real-life story of romance or the 57-year long and still going strong marriage of Ann and Jack Sargent.
Ann Van Aalten grew up in DenHelder, Netherlands and immigrated to Canada along with her family as a young teenager, initially settling in Brantford, Ontario. She had only been in the country a few years when her mother took seriously ill. Ann was obliged to quit school and take on a waitressing job to help raise and support her three younger siblings. She found employment at the Kitchener Airport, where she soon met a young flying instructor named Jack Sargent.
Jack was born and raised in Toronto but moved to Hespeler, now known as Cambridge, when he was 16 and began flying almost as soon as he got there. “I drove by the Kitchener Airport one day and saw a big sign saying, ‘learn to fly’. I had saved money from having been a newspaper delivery boy and had worked in a textile factory in Hespeler when I finished high school, so I jumped at the chance to become a pilot.”
Jack was a natural for the profession. After getting a private pilot’s licence, he soon acquired a commercial licence and then earned an instructor rating. After a short stint as a flying instructor in Carp, he landed a job back in Kitchener training air cadets in the mid 1960s. It was there that he met Ann, who was preparing meals for the cadets training at the airport. Within short order, their romance evolved to marriage in 1966, a new job opportunity arose for Jack as an instructor with Toronto Airways at Buttonville Airport, and the young couple launched a long life together of sky-high travel adventures.
The 1960s was a period of unprecedented growth in air travel as flights became more accessible to the general public and not just the upper class. The introduction of jet aircraft and increased competition among airlines made the travel option both more available and affordable. As a result, there was a huge hiring boom for pilots. Jack applied to Air Canada and became a commercial pilot for the company in late 1967, following training in Montreal and Winnipeg.
Around this time Jack’s parents moved to the Carolinas to retire, and the couple bought their house in Hespeler where they raised their two daughters, Cathy and Caroline, and stayed until 1984. When their youngest daughter Caroline became a major horse enthusiast, they bought a 10-acre property in Rockwood near Fergus where they lived for the next decade. In 1994, they downsized to a condo in Cambridge so they could spend their winters in Florida.
“Ever since we got married, we went to Daytona Beach each year because we both love stock car races,” explains Anne. “We started out buying a double-wide trailer for our winter stays, but we later bought a house in a fly-in community called Spruce Creek just outside Daytona as we had our own airplane by then. Jack had lots of time off work, since pilots can only fly a certain number of hours, so we could travel back and forth year-round to our home down there.”
The couple moved several more times, buying another house in Leesburg to be close to Canadian friends who wintered in the area and, from there, moved to a new community developed by the late Jimmy Buffet called Margaritaville. They sold that property too when the pandemic struck and they were unable to travel back and forth. Aside from pandemic-related restrictions, they decided that they didn’t like the politics and increasing violence in the sunshine state and sold their last property there. Instead, they took advantage of unlimited flying passes that were available as a perk when Jack retired in 2002 after 35 years with Air Canada. The lifelong travellers toured extensively throughout Asia and Europe and took frequent cruises.
It was only once their daughter, Cathy Sargent, moved to Manitoulin in 2018 to work at the Mindemoya Hospital that they became aware of the Island and what it has to offer. The premature death of Cathy’s spouse from a major heart attack prompted them to make yet another major decision about retirement life and one final move. They bought a house in Bay Estates in May 2022 to be closer to Cathy and her son, Brandon, who also moved up from Southern Ontario to join his mom and now lives with her in Sandfield. Brandon initially worked at Three Cows and a Cone in Little Current before also finding employment at the Manitoulin Health Centre.
“We had only been up to Manitoulin to visit Cathy two to three times prior to moving here ourselves. But we recognized that time is of the essence given our health and ages and we agreed to make the move now while we still can,” explains Ann. “We also continue to visit our daughter Caroline and granddaughter Isabelle, who live in Calgary, as often as we can.”
The couple bought a fully furnished house in Bay Estates that they have since remodelled and redecorated. They love their home and gardens, the local area, and their magnificent waterfront view of Lake Huron. They have found it takes more time than they expected to get to know local people and settle into the community, but that is something they are hoping will change soon.
“We have had a life full of travel and adventure,” says Jack. “I am content to be grounded and just put down roots close to my family again.”
Heather Marshall and her husband worked as journalists and consultants in the National Capital Region for more decades than they care to admit before making their Sandfield cottage their permanent home. A lifelong learner, Heather loves discovering new things and people and relishes the opportunity to write about newcomers to the Manitoulin. If you would like to share your story or know of recent arrivals we should meet, send a message to HAMarshall@proton.me
by Heather Marshall
