Obituary of Donald Arthur Weston

WESTON ~ Donald Arthur Weston passed away at the Lloydminster Hospital, Lloydminster, Saskatchewan on Monday, June 29, 2015 at the age of 76 years. Don leaves to mourn his passing: his loving wife, Donna; two sons, Wade Weston and Sheldon Weston; one granddaughter, Melissa Scott; son-in-law, Kerry Craven; four siblings: Lillian (Jim) Johnson, Bill (Norma) Weston, Allan (Heather) Weston and Doreen (Joel) Rooks; as well as numerous other relatives. Don was predeceased by his daughter, Lori Craven; and parents, Arthur and Doris Weston. The Prayer Vigil for Don was conducted from St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, Lloydminster, Alberta at 7:00 P.M. on Monday, July 6, 2015. The Mass of Christian Burial for Don was conducted from St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, Lloydminster, Alberta on Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 2:00 P.M. with Father Rajappa Savariappan officiating. Jim Born gave the eulogy. The music was accompanied by the St. Anthony’s Choir as well as organist, Rosemary Almond and pianist, Cis Nakonechny. The honorary pallbearers were all his Golfing, Fishing and Hunting Friends. The active pallbearers were Danton Weston, Danny Fallis, Lyle Rooks, Michael Johnson, Mark Trotzuk and Joel Rooks. Interment was held in the Lloydminster City Cemetery, Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. Donations in memory of Don may be made to the Lori Craven Memorial Fund or to St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church Building Fund. McCaw Funeral Service Ltd., of Lloydminster, Alberta administered the funeral arrangements. CARD OF THANKS The family of Don Weston would like to thank our loving and merciful God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ for Don’s life. We will continue to cherish the memories! We are grateful to all of our family and friends in Lloydminster and surrounding communities and to those who traveled a lengthy trip to celebrate Don’s life at the prayer vigil or funeral service. We greatly appreciate your thoughts, prayers, sincere expressions of sympathy and support at this most difficult time. Your donations, phone calls, visits, baking, cards, Mass cards, flowers, gifts, and online condolences were most welcome. A special thank you to Father Raj for his love, understanding and homily at the heartwarming services. Our hearts were blessed! Thank you very much Jean and Rose for your presence as acolytes, and Audrey, Trish, and St. Anthony’s staff for their caring help to prepare the services, arrange and set up for the luncheons. The C.W.L. and members of the choir did a wonderful job at the luncheons. It was truly a feast! Many thanks to Angela Trotzuk, Michelle MacDonald, Sherry Crossman, Christine Charbonneau and Marlene Spence for reading the Word of God and intercessory prayers in such a heartfelt manner. Marlene and Choir, the music was awesome, giving God glory and lifting our spirits! We appreciate Dave and Joanne Lowery and family who greeted at the door, and the pallbearers, who were so honored to take part! To Jim, for his presentation of the eulogy, very well done! We would like to extend a sincere thank you to all the medical staff who have been so caring and compassionate, especially the last seven years. Dr. K. Govender and Dr. Z. Kostic, who were always “there,” and all the other doctors and nurses when Don was in the emergency ward or was admitted. Our gratitude also goes out to those in the Physio department, Heart & Stroke Program and staff. More recently, the Strides Program, under the supervision of Jennifer Jewell and her team, and all those participating have been another “family” to us. Thanks for the enjoyable Home Care comradeship, those at Vitalaire for their support, and the ambulance attendants for responding so promptly, with an understanding and a caring manner. Special thanks are extended to Joel, Dave, Glenn and staff at McCaw Funeral Service Ltd. - their compassionate and professional service was a blessing for us! Donna & Family EULOGY by Jim Born Donald Arthur Weston was born on a farm outside of Maidstone, Saskatchewan on December 4, 1938. Lillian, Don and Bill attended school in Birling until 1951 when the school was closed. They then attended school in Maidstone. After leaving school, Don worked for Cecil Reece on the farm at Lone Rock, Saskatchewan and later for Art MacLean near Paradise Valley, Alberta. In 1958, he moved to Lloydminster beginning his pursuit of carpentry as a trade. He worked for several contractors as a carpenter, had several partners and finally worked on his own doing finish carpentry. He was then employed by the Lloydminster Post Office, transferring to letter carrier when home delivery began in Lloydminster. He enjoyed the change, pounding the pavement delivering mail. He started work at 7:00 a.m., sorted the mail for his route and delivered it all by noon. Then it was off to the pool hall in the winter and to the golf course in the summer. The letter carriers were on a strike one summer, so I made up a sign that said those people on strike were not allowed to play golf until the strike was over. My mother and Don had a go around about this and eventually called me at work. I told Mom it was a joke so she let him play. I sure had fun with it. The Lloydminster School Unit was his place of employment when he retired in 2008 due to his health. As a young man he was active in sports, especially baseball. There were many hours and great times playing with teammates Buck and Ralph Gerbig with their father Lloyd Gerbig as coach. Baseball was a hobby for several years and included playing with another team at Marshall in a Saskatchewan league. The same year Don moved to Lloydminster, Donna Schneider was choosing a career in an accounting office moving from the west - Clandonald, Alberta. She was another sports enthusiast and began playing softball with the Lloydminster ladies team. They were married September 24, 1960 and after a while of him going east and her going west, she decided to just follow his games. Over the years, Don didn’t want to travel much, but they went to Nelson, BC for their honeymoon, a wonderful time, but within a week Donna was back in Clandonald and out in the field on her belly with Don and her Dad, shooting ducks with a 4:10 shotgun! Sometime in the first year, when they were still both playing ball, Don began to golf and although Donna wasn’t too keen, as she couldn’t see much use in chasing a little golf ball around, she decided if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em! She discovered that it was just the greatest game ever, and thereafter they were both out there every day, perhaps together on the weekend, but daily with the ladies and men’s leagues. I got to know Don at the golf course and played hockey with him as well. One day at the golf club a couple of seniors came in for lunch; they loved my mothers cooking. The one fellow ordered a salmon sandwich and a piece of apple pie. When he wasn’t looking, Don put a pink napkin in the sandwich, my Mom nearly passed out. The fellow ate the sandwich and pie, thanked my mother, went out to golf, none the wiser. They had begun their married life in a basement suite, and then moved to a few different houses as the family grew. On February 19, 1963, they were delighted when Wade was born, Sheldon on January 23, 1964 and Lori on April 19, 1966, another blessing! In 1966, Don with the help of some friends, began building a brand-new house. The house was completed, a house warming date was set and we all had a great time. The men were in the basement and the ladies upstairs in the living room. We were getting pretty loud and were told to get on upstairs and we did. Frank Benson, Don’s best friend at the time, was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall and pretty soon his glass was tipping and he was slowly pouring some of his red wine on the new white shag rug. Now the new house was ready to be lived in. Donna thought they would stay forever. Don finished the basement, and there were kids there every night after school so they knew where the children were. There was a park not far away and they could go there to swim and play at the playground. It is no surprise that all three of the kids began to skate, play hockey, softball, baseball, basketball, volleyball and finally golf. Some of their most cherished memories are the times spent with the children as they took part in their sports activities. Don acquired an old school bus, built new cupboards, table, benches and beds to meet their needs. They traveled to many different lakes as they had a few favorite spots. Now it’s time to share the next chapter in their lives. Don had always wanted to live on a farm again and on December 13, 1974 they moved to the country, a life changing event! It was a complete change of lifestyles, but so thoroughly enjoyed by all! The boys were excited about shooting their 22 rifles, and the neighbor sold them a gentle horse so that Lori could ride with her new friend. Yard work and gardening became Donna’s hobby and Don’s favorite pastimes included fishing at the river a few miles north, and golfing at Sandy Beach only four miles away. Their weekends began to include barbecues and skidooing in the winter. There were many wiener roasts at the park in town waiting after school and work for the ball games to begin. Being sports-minded it was exciting to follow the activities of the kids. A few years later, the faith of their family was certainly tested. Lori had married Kerry Craven in 1995. Although she loved children, they had not yet started a family. In 2001, she was diagnosed with cancer and was told she only had about a year to live. It was exactly a year later on September 14, 2002 when she went to be with Jesus. Three weeks before Lori passed away, the boys, who had been working in Toronto and Texas came home to visit. Wade saw an ad for cabinet making in Paradise Valley, Alberta and a month after Lori passed away, Wade, Bonnie and Melissa, their only and very precious granddaughter moved from Ontario to Alberta. In about a year, Sheldon, an electrician, was able to move back from Texas to Alberta and began working out of Fort McMurray. It was so great for Don and Donna to have them all closer to home. Lori’s slow pitch ball team had organized a tournament when she was sick to raise funds to send her to the U.S.A. for treatments, but she was unable to get on the plane. Every year since then, Lori Craven Ball Tournament is held to help out families of young children who have cancer or other serious illnesses, occasionally helping some adults. It has been just so awesome, year after year to see children coming back in remission or healed. God has certainly worked good out of an extremely sorrowful time. Each year it grows, as many of those who were recipients want to come and visit, help out, or play ball. It has also turned into a family venture as some of Don and Donna’s brothers, sisters and families and friends gather to cook and serve hamburgers and snacks for the two-day tournament. Kerry’s family travels some distance to participate and Lori’s friends spend many, many hours organizing and running the event. To date, the tournament has raised over a half a million dollars. This year the date of the tournament was August 15th and 16th. In November 2008, Don had his first heart attack and since then there have been numerous health problems. There were many nurses and health care workers and Don loved teasing the girls. I’m sure they all loved him. A 50th anniversary come-and-go tea was being planned in 2010, but was cancelled because of Don’s health. However, in September they enjoyed two smaller celebrations, one with the Weston family and one with the Schneider family. In August 2011, they moved to a condo in Lloydminster, but were still able to enjoy the farm for a few more years as Sheldon had purchased the land. Don had always enjoyed picking berries and with the help of a golf cart, he still continued picking raspberries, saskatoon berries, plums and apples. After 13 weeks in the hospital two years ago, and finally waiting in the Maidstone Hospital for a bed in Points West, he was able to come home. The family is so grateful for the last two years when Don could be at home, where he was just so contented. Two days before he passed away, he was able to go out and shoot a gopher, something he really wanted to do. Don loved his family, enjoyed his many friends while fishing, hunting, ball, golf, hockey or a cup of coffee at any coffee shops or Shep’s Sports coffee row. Don, you will be missed.