Betty Gwendolyn (nee Gray) Roelofson (Sept 10, 1929 — Jan 18, 2022)
Betty had a long and beautiful life. Though we are sad she has physically left us, her presence is ever near. Betty started her Muskoka life as a child after her parents built a cottage near the Muskoka Sands on Lake Muskoka. The summer she was 14, a family friend (Lloyd Wright) had just purchased a summer resort on Kahshe Lake named Wigwam Inn. He was desperate for staff and asked Betty's dad if she could come and help out. She worked for Mr. Wright the next summer, but during the second summer, Mr. Wright sold the resort to two young Army Officers.
She returned to work for the new owners in 1946. She was quite an asset and started to become close with one of the owners. So close in fact that in May 1946 Bill Roelofson proposed marriage. Her father reluctantly agreed as he had wanted them to wait until her birthday in September, but Bill needed her to help open the lodge. They married on May 17th, 1946 (right before the May 24th opening weekend). And so her life as "Mrs. Wigwam" began. They changed the name to Wigwam Lodge, built more cottages and the motel, and raised three children, Randy Roelofson (Las Vegas), Douglas Roelofson (Cambridge), and Sandra Roelofson-Belovari (Kahshe Lake).
Over the next 24 years, Kahshe was our summer home. During the off-season, Cambridge/Galt was home. The tireless Betty kept very busy with countless volunteer groups/church, Bridge Clubs, and sports taxiing, and was generally the driving force behind all family agendas. After the sale of her beloved Wigwam Lodge in 1970, Betty and Bill traveled the globe, lived in Arizona, and spent many summers at various Muskoka cottages. After Bill's passing in 1990, Muskoka again was a destination with her children and grandchildren.
In the last few years, she spent reflective times on Kahshe on the North Kahshe Road, Oak Road, and Nagaya Beach. We are blessed to have shared Betty's wonderful life and are so happy that Kahshe has become such a big part of her children, granddaughters Lindsay Belovari, Jessica Belovari-Tedford (Josh), and great-grandsons Emerson Tedford and Hudson Tedford, and hopefully generation to come. Quite a beautiful legacy she has left.