Obituary of Erwin Dimmel

Erwin Dimmel passed away in the Lloydminster Hospital on Saturday, May 11, 2013 at the age of 79 years. Erwin was born on May 15, 1933 in Poland to Mariana and Adam Dimmel. Erwin will be sadly missed by: his loving wife, Pat; three sons, Arnold (Violet), Darrell (Laureen) and Randy (Marina); seven grandchildren; five great grandchildren; one sister, Herta; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Eulogy: Grandpa's Story As written by: Kirstyn Dimmel Thank you for joining us today to celebrate the life of my Grandpa Erwin. My name is Kirstyn Dimmel and my parents are Randy and Marina. Today I would like to share with you the story of my Grandpa's life. You should feel privileged, because I had to wait twenty years to hear the majority of it. Grandpa started his life as kind of an afterthought. He was the youngest of eight children with the second youngest six years older than him. Each of these eight children was born in the same house but in three different countries, the boundaries kept changing. When grandpa was about six, his brothers (all much older) were all drafted into the army and grandpa recalled them all coming home on leave and not wanting to return to war. A fond memory he has is of his brother Arnold coming home and playing with him. His mother passed away of cancer when he was nine. Then, when he was approximately ten Grandpa remembered hearing the war approaching for two weeks. So, his father, a farmer, packed up a wagon along with their horses and cattle and all of their belongings and raced the battlefront West. When the Eastern Front caught up to them, his father told all of the family to get down in the wagon underneath a feather tick, because they were surrounded by gunfire. His father was hit in the leg by a bullet, but miraculously no one else was wounded. The feather tick was full of bullet holes. This was around the time the Russians discovered that the families' housekeeper was Russian and she was forced to return to Russia. The Russian army surgeon wanted to amputate his father's leg but his Commanding Officer wouldn't allow it and he passed away approximately a week later of gangrene, grandpa was eleven. Because they had brought all of their belongings with them the kids dressed him in a suit and buried him under a tree with his wedding rings. They then watched some men dig him back up to steal everything of worth, including the gold fillings off his teeth and the suit off his back. Grandpa and his older sister, Elma, and her four-year old son Heinz, were then sent to a refugee camp where Elma caught TB. Another of his sisters, Herta, was taken away to go to work and Elma was sent away to be cared for. While in the refugee camp Grandpa looked after Heinz; when Heinz was always crying for his mother and getting in trouble for wetting the bed, grandpa asked the people in charge to let Heinz sleep with him and he would get him up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Grandpa didn't want to be in the camp and so him and another boy tried to escape. Their attempt was a failure and when they got caught they were told if they tried to escape again they'd be put in jail. Well, grandpa ended up spending a night in jail. After his two-failed escape attempts he was moved to an orphanage, Heinz remembers to this day the day he left. While in the orphanage the head woman there took a liking to grandpa and he was soon running errands for her in town. While grandpa was in the orphanage, his sister Herta was working in a nearby town, and trying to track him down. When Herta discovered where he was and had saved up some money she convinced the head woman at the orphanage to let him stay with her for the weekend. His friend, the head of the orphanage must have known he wouldn't return because she gave him the biggest hug goodbye before he left. The money Herta had saved up was to pay off a fish smuggler to sneak them across the border into Germany. This attempt to escape was successful and Grandpa and Herta traveled by foot to the home of their sister Adaila and her five children in Dusseldorf. During their travels they remembered hearing bombs dropping all over. When they finally arrived Adaila was not at home but her children were. When they knocked on the door the children told them their mother had told them to not open the door for anyone. After much discussion they convinced the children, who were approximately the same age as grandpa of their identities and they were let inside. When Adaila arrived back at home she paid no attention to the two extra children sitting on the couch because she didn't recognize them. It had been years since they had seen each other and they had to tell her who they were. Her husband had been drafted to the war and she was left at home to support their five children. It was not long before she made the decision that Grandpa was going to go to live with her husband's brother in Canada. To make this happen they had to lie to the government and put on his paperwork that he was the nephew of Dan Otto (Erna Oestreicher's dad). Grandpa was never a soldier, but said he would never want himself, or his family and friends to live through another war. He recognized that there are always good and bad people, in all races. When he arrived in Hillmond, on March 4,1950, if he had had any money he would have turned around and gone back to Germany. But by the time he had saved up enough money he didn't want to go back, perhaps Grandma had something to do with his change of heart. Grandpa worked as a hired hand for around six years for Dan, slowly picking up English from Billy Crone who was only five at the time. Grandpa had a variety of different jobs from working on the rigs and cutting down trees to selling pots and pans from door to door. He saved up enough money to buy some wedding rings. Grandma was always the girl next door. Perhaps Johnny and Irene Andrews can take most of the credit for their relationship, Johnny as Grandpa's best friend, and Irene as one of Grandma's. Even though Grandma loved to dance, and Grandpa didn't, his other qualities must have shone bright. But before they got married Grandpa bought the land where he built his first house and started his own farm. Grandma and Grandpa married on April 25, 1958, and his house got a whole lot cleaner. They had 3 sons, Arnold in 1959, Darrell in 1961, and Randy in 1964 of whom he was very proud. All 3 boys continue to farm together on the land Grandpa first settled. Until 1966 Grandpa was the only Dimmel from his family in Canada. Two of his nieces came to Ontario on a trip and met men and they decided to stay. Their dad, Ewald, Grandpa's brother, his wife, and their other daughter followed shortly after, and made Canada their home. The first fifteen years of farming were very hard, and grandpa used to say when he'd go to a machinery dealership there was the new stuff, the used stuff, the poorly used stuff and the junk at the back of the lot. Grandpa bought from the back of the lot. Grandpa continued farming full time 'til the mid 70's when he spent two winters building the Ed Ross Pre-cast cement plant, and that was the most fun he ever had working with his friends. Grandpa was not afraid of heights, and this came in handy, during these years. Grandpa also enjoyed fishing with Fred Kastendieck at Lac Des Isle, and when he was no longer able to go fishing he would hope his boys would bring him some of their catch. In 1980 grandpa was diagnosed with MS but he didn't let it slow him down and he continued to farm with his three boys up until 1998. Through that time he wore out a few quads and multiple combines. His favorite part of the farm was definitely driving the combine; he'd get in it in the morning and not come out until dark. Part of taking meals to the field, meant we grand kids got to go for a ride in the combine with Grandpa. But in the last few years he was happy to just do parts runs with grandma. Uncle Darrell says the one thing that he will always miss is the phone calls from Grandpa every day in the spring and the fall. He always wondered what they were doing, or how things were running. And every time it rained you knew he would be phoning to see how much we got. In 1981Grandpa made his first trip back to Germany since he came to Canada and it was only a few years before they made another trip over to visit. In the '90s Grandpa started getting granddaughters and everything got even better because he got to spend a lot of his time babysitting. All of us girls remember being towed behind his scooter and getting lots of rides around the yard in the golf cart. But we weren't the only kids that loved Grandpa's scooter, Grandma said everyday when they were in the mall little kids would always come over to check it out and when their parents were okay with it he'd give them short rides around the mall. Grandpa was also known to teach us some German, and could be convinced to play cards with us as well. In more recent years Grandpa would use his time with us to inform us that if we kept texting on our phones so much that our fingers were gonna fall off. I'm still waiting for that to happen. Because of his MS, Grandpa was never able to play with us as most Grandparents would, but he found other ways to keep us amused. Grandpa was one to not get mad at us or raise his temper and you certainly could not underestimate all of the things Grandpa was capable of. Also, for someone with less than four years of education he was able to speak five languages, read and write in two and was capable of doing even the hardest multiplication questions in his head. Grandpa had a truly remarkable life and he will be missed. Card of Thanks We would like to send a special thank you to Arnold Leeson for handling the service, Kirstyn for giving the eulogy, Meaghan for the slide show and the honorary pallbearers. As well as to the nurses and staff at Jubilee, nurses and Dr. du Plooy at the hospital, Dean Wenzel and McCaw funeral home. Thank you for the food, fruit baskets, flowers, cards, visits and phone calls to our families. As well as all the donations to the various charities. To all our thoughtful friends and neighbors your kindness was very much appreciated. Lastly to the staff at the Wild Rose thank you for the lovely lunch you served.