My dad

The Best Dad Ever, Prosper (“Ross”) Brioux, passed away Wednesday. He was 97. Forgive this intrusion into matters personal, but I know many friends and family members check in here and, besides, he was a big TV fan, too. The Brioux family home on Wilgar Rd. in Etobicoke was one of the first in the neighbourhood to have a TV set. The gang crowded around the Marconi for those first CBC Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts in 1952. He didn’t miss too many games in the 60 years since. Dad was a youngster of 15 when he and his dad managed to grab standing room only tickets for the very first game played at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1930. Over the years he saw the Leafs win 11 Stanley Cups. He finally got fed up waiting on them to win a 12th.

An obituary can he found here in Saturday’s Toronto Star, but funeral arrangements are as follows: Visitation is Sunday between 2-4 p.m. and again between 7-9 p.m. at the Turner and Porter Yorke Chapel at Jane and Bloor in Toronto. The Bloor West Village area was his ‘hood before the family crossed the Humber into Etobicoke. One of dad’s favourite jokes was that he was going to “take Jane to Shuter then Bloor West.”

The funeral mass will be at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church at Royal York and Bloor. 

For more details, or to see photos of Ross over the years, follow me on Facebook or go to dad’s memorial page at turnerporter.ca.