A discreet little sign 鈥� nailed to a tree at the end of a steep driveway on Florence Lake Road in Langford 鈥� announces Evans Watch and Clock Repairs.

We ventured up the drive to meet a smiling Roy Evans, the man behind the small home business, and were ushered into his home workshop where dozens of clocks of all shapes and sizes hand on the walls or sit on benches.

鈥淚鈥檝e been fixing watches since I was about 16 or 17,鈥� said Evans. 鈥淢y father would bring home watches that fellows would give him to fix. Well, he was no watchmaker, and neither was I, but he鈥檇 give them to me and I鈥檇 fix them. He鈥檇 return the watches and they鈥檇 pay him in cigarettes,鈥� Evans said.

That was about 1944 and Evans, who was born in 1928, found that he loved the intricacies of watches and clocks.

He鈥檚 95 years old now (you鈥檝e probably done the math already) and he鈥檚 still at it, and his hands are as steady as ever.

Now the story might well end there, but for the fact that Evans was never a professional watchmaker and received no formal training in the craft. Sure, there was the year in England when his innate skill got him a job at a jewelry shop where the other watchmaker taught Evans a few details about timepieces, but Evans had a wandering spirit and moved on.

鈥淚 went to Southampton University and took the cadet course to become a cadet captain. Then I shipped out on a tanker out of Newcastle as an apprentice cadet,鈥� Evans said.

He bounced around a series of ships until one day when, on a tanker near Aruba, the captain got drunk and fell overboard. Evans dove into what he later found out were barracuda-infested waters and saved the man. The captain survived but was fired. Evans moved up the ranks to third mate.

鈥淭hen there was the time in the Mediterranean when I was made the medical officer because I had a St. John Ambulance certificate,鈥� Evans said.

鈥淭his fellow fell ill, and we went to a small port where some nuns operated on him. They dressed me in a gown and gloves and had me assist in the operation. I had to hold his insides to one side with this spatula sort of thing, not really knowing what I was doing.鈥�

He got in his sea time and a few years later had earned his Master Mariners ticket.

The life of a sailor paled, however, when Evans had his first wife run off with an ambulance driver, citing his time away from home as the reason.

Evans gave up the sea and decided to be a teacher.

He met his second wife while teaching in England and soon emigrated to Canada.

Life as a teacher was fine until, after 22 years of marriage and three children, his second wife explained to him that she鈥檇 never really liked him much. She took most of their money to buy herself a new car and went off to a new life.

Evans didn鈥檛 waste too much time in finding wife number three and, finding that she shared his love of ballroom dancing, they went on to teach dancing for 13 years.

鈥淭hroughout all of that, I always fixed watches and clocks for people. For a while, I fixed all of the watches folks brought into Sears, and even today I have jewelry shops send me watches to fix.鈥�

There are a lot more stories of course (at 95, there pretty much would have to be) but Evan鈥檚 story is far from over.

鈥淚鈥檓 a little concerned that they鈥檝e said I need to take a driver鈥檚 test in May when my license expires. I鈥檝e never taken a driver鈥檚 test, but I do have this lovely Tesla that I bought last year, so I hope it all goes well,鈥� Evans said.

So do we, Roy. So do we.