As recalled by their loving son Dave Kosonic.

My parents Edward and Winnifred were among the countless military romances which blossomed at the legendary Palais Royale ballroom particularly during WW11.

My father met my mom at the iconic live music club in 1944 while he was on leave as a crew member stationed on the Royal Canadian Navy warship HMCS Buckingham that operated out of Halifax.

The Palais Royale, which still stands at 1601 Lake Shore Blvd W., is best remembered as a dance hall that featured high-profile entertainers from the Big Band era including Duke Ellington, Count Basie and the Dorsey Brothers. Even Canada’s King of Swing Bert Niosi graced the stage.

My mom Winnifred McConkey was born in 1922 in the small town of Priceville, just west of Flesherton. After completing high school she moved to Toronto and worked as a mail sorter for Canada Post.

My father Edward Kosonic was born in 1924 in La Vallee, in western Ontario near the Manitoba border. Dad joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942. He underwent intensive training for one-year in New Brunswick where he became an expert on the use of a new anti-German submarine locating radar called Asdic.

He was the radar supervisor on his ship and was on call 24 hours a day in the event his ship or other ships in in his convoy detected nearby German U-boats. He used the Asdic radar to pinpoint the location and depth of enemy U-boats.

The convoy of Navy warships that included the Buckingham attacked many German submarines and was credited for the destruction of a number of deadly U-boats.

While on R&R my dad came to Toronto and decided to check out the Palais Royale. Dad looked dapper when he arrived in his official off-duty Navy uniform. A short time later, he spotted a pretty young girl, Winnifred, at a table with some other ladies.

Dad got his nerve up to ask her for a dance. She accepted and they danced the evening away. You can say the rest is history.

Mom left her job at Canada Post and accompanied dad to Halifax, where she lived in a tiny flat while waiting for dad to return when the war ended in 1945. Dad was honourably discharged from the Navy and the happy young couple moved to Toronto, got married and in time established a very successful home electronics business in the Six Points area of Etobicoke.

They both lived long lives with my mom passing away in 2006 at 84, and dad in 2011 at 85.

To this day, whenever I drive by the Palais Royale, I think about my mom and dad and say: “ That is where it all began.”