 |
At her first ice skating lesson, Debbi Wilkes just cried. Then her older sister demonstrated some techniques … and a skating legend was born.
At five years old, for Wilkes’ first performance, she twirled around the rink as Tinkerbell from the tale Peter Pan.
“I’ve loved skating ever since,” she says. Wilkes and her on-ice partner, the late Guy Revell, won the Canadian Pairs titles and the North American Championship in 1963 and ’64. They also took home the silver at the Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.
At age 17, she retired and went back to school to “live a life without the pressures of skating,” says the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame member. She later became a figure skating analyst for CFTO TV.
 |
In 2006, she joined Skate Canada (the national governing body) as Director of Marketing and Sponsorship. “I will be one of the team leaders at the Vancouver Olympics,” she says. “I’m there to support the athletes and allay their fears. I will remind them that they are well trained, prepared to compete – and that all of Canada sends their best wishes.”
Wilkes welcomed Star Spaces into her home.
Q: How would you describe your home in a few words?
A: Eclectic – a.k.a. early-garage-sale or cottage-like.
Q: Tell us about your home.
A: It is a three-bedroom house with a backsplit in East York [Toronto]. It was built in 1950. We moved in June 1, 2008. It’s a double lot on a cul-de-sac, so we have extreme privacy.
Q: What attracted you to this space?
A: What sold me was the backyard ravine. It’s exquisite and feels like I’m at a cottage somewhere. It’s a home of manageable size on a beautiful lot with potential for an in-law apartment (my husband’s folks are in their 80s). It had a good feel for empty nesters like us.
Q: Who shares your home?
A: My husband Bruce and our yellow Lab, Heart. There are also a myriad of wild birds outside and a coyote that lives in the valley.
Q: What is your favourite room and why?
A: I love the view from the living room in the basement. It looks out on the
ravine to a captivating scene. I need the balance of being at a public skating event and then being able to return to my tucked-away and serene home.
Q: How would you describe your decorating style?
A: Our look is guided by happy memories and finding/using things that are cherished from our families or from our adventures. My mother had a teacup collection. As a little girl, I remember having tea together. She even bought me my own tea set. Over the years, I have collected teacups from around the world.
When I’m travelling, I buy art and decor that will remind me of my trip. In our dining room we have wooden pieces of art. I love the print painted by skating icon Toller Cranston.
Q: What is your fondest memory in this home?
A: Our first Christmas in it last year. We’d lived in PEI for several years, so coming back home to Toronto was really “coming home.” Our children and their significant others joined us, too.
Q: What’s the one item in this house you can’t live without?
A: My teacups.
Q: Weekends at home, what are we most likely to find you doing?
A: Crosswords, walking Heart, reading and snoozing by the fire.
Q: If your walls could talk, what would they say?
A: These two like to relax … they enjoy a simple, quiet life with spontaneous visits from family and friends.