Obituary of Arthur Frederick Wells

WELLS ~ Arthur Frederick Wells passed away at the Lloydminster Hospital, Lloydminster, Saskatchewan on Wednesday, July 29, 2015 at the age of 91 years. Arthur leaves to mourn his passing: his loving wife: Marie Wells; three sons: Gerald, Neil and Dale as well as numerous other relatives. Donations in memory of Arthur Wells may be made to your local charity of choice. McCaw Funeral Service, of Lloydminster, Alberta administered the funeral arrangements. EULOGY Good afternoon, My name is Brayden Wells and this is my sister, Brianna. We, along with our sister Britt are the youngest of Art and Marie’s grandchildren. We have the privilege of eulogizing our grandpa, but we can’t take all the credit: this has been a combined family effort. Our family includes our grandma, Marie, Uncle Gerald, our parents, Neil and Debbie, Uncle Dale and his wife Meisu and our cousins Landen and his wife, Jenna and their children, Tessa and Tyger who live in Greenstreet; Jonas, his wife, Lynne and their children, Jonah and Kalem of Edmonton; Grayson, his wife, Kayla and their sons, Theo and new baby Daxton of Edmonton ; Dorian, Joni and Hayden, also of Edmonton; Chris and his wife, Cheryl of St. Albert, and Mei’s children from Saskatoon, Jaylinn and Bo. Arthur Frederick Wells was born in Market Harborough, England on August 16, 1923 the second child and only boy in a family of four children. He was pre-deceased by his parents, Fred and Ethel and his oldest sister Phyllis. He is survived by his sisters Joan Dow of Lloydminster and Noreen McKone of Creston, B. C and their families. Grandpa spent the first five years of his life in the village of Lubenham England. Being so young, he didn’t have many memories of that time but he remembered his little pedal car that he had to leave behind when they moved to Canada. It would take up too much room on the ship and cost too much. His interest in cars started at a young age! After a five day ocean voyage and a long train ride without sleeping accommodations from St. John’s Newfoundland to Lloydminster, the family spent their first night at the Alberta Hotel. It was the night of April 6, 1929 the night the flour mill across the street burnt to the ground. The next morning as they drove into their new yard, 11 miles southeast of Lloydminster, the ground was covered with 6 inches of fresh snow. Never having seen snow before, Grandpa thought it looked so warm and white. He dashed from the car and lay down only to find that it wasn’t warm at all. He never liked snow after that. Grandpa attended Mannix School, located 12 miles southeast of Lloydminster until Grade 8. Although his formal education was limited, he was a self-taught mechanic, carpenter and electrician. He could fix anything! And being on a farm presented many opportunities to test his skill! As a young man Grandpa worked for other farmers until he returned home to rent and later buy the Barker place. He eventually bought his parents’ land as well. There were many tough years in farming and grandpa supplemented his income at various other jobs including line man for the telephone company, working for the PFA and what he enjoyed the most- working in the oilfield for General Petroleum. In the oilfield there was always something to fix! Grandpa met Marie Hughes in the winter of 1948 while she was working in the store in Streamstown. They were married November 24, 1950 and would have celebrated their 65th anniversary later this year. They moved into a 2 room house on Grandpa’s parents’ place where they lived and became parents to their first son Gerald born in 1953. Later that year they moved their house to the Barker place. There they welcomed two more sons, Neil in 1955 and Dale in 1960. Although small in size their home was big in hospitality as they often welcomed the Willoughby’s and Wilsons and others for many meals and good times together. They were blessed to have spent more than 50 Christmases and New Years with the Willoughby Family. Feeling the need for more space, Grandpa raised feeder pigs to finance building a new house. In 1961, using his own design, Grandpa enlisted the help of many neighbours and built the house that Grandma and Grandpa lived in until May 2013 when they moved into the Hearthstone. An interesting fact, Grandpa was one of the first farmers in the area to grow canola. The first truckload he hauled to Edmonton sold for $1400. That was the most money he had ever had in his life. This allowed him to start saving for the first time and led to a life-time obsession with income tax and investments. As many of you can attest, it was one of his favorite topics of discussion and he was always willing to discuss the finer points of income tax. He helped many complete their income tax forms each year. Although he officially retired from farming in 1978, when Gerald took over the farm, he remained Gerald’s Chief Financial Officer as long as Gerald farmed. During their time together, Grandma and Grandpa travelled to England and Wales, Expo 67 in Montreal and made many trips down East to visit relatives and pick up their new cars from the factory. They also took an extensive holiday with Harry and Ina Willoughby, visiting various places in Texas, Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. Grandpa’s favorite place though was Las Vegas where they wintered for more than 25 years. Grandpa was a very serious, practical and structured man. This made him predictable but also made him reliable. Coffee, lunch and his nap were at the same time every day. Thursday and Saturday were town days. Not much would keep him from this schedule. He was a man of strong opinions. Being structured, he had spent time thinking his ideas through, but sometimes he hadn’t communicated his thoughts to others. There was a water-skiing incident at the lake when Grandpa’s idea of how you drop him off at the shore and the driver of the boat’s idea differed. Needless to say, Grandpa’s skis stopped when he hit the sand, but Grandpa did not. Grandpa also had strong political views- he did not like Tommy Douglas, yet he believed in true democracy. He was annoyed by politics getting in the way of people’s private lives. He was a man of his word, especially when it came to parenting- there were no second chances, no counting to three, and you definitely got a spanking for playing in the bales when you were told not to. Ask his sons what face he gave when he had had enough. Grandpa had a love/ hate relationship with animals. He loved cats, Duke being one of his favorites. At one time, there were more than 20 matted farm cats begging to come inside. He did not like horses, however. Grandpa had had experiences with a team of horses that were reluctant to leave the farm, but anxious to return- so anxious in fact, that when he got down from the wagon to open the gate, the horses would leave him standing while they headed for home. He had no other option than to close the gate and walk. Dogs also were an issue. One farm dog ate the legs off his underwear when they were drying on the clothesline, but their dog, Mick was the icing on the cake. He was running one way, grandpa the other, when they collided head on. Grandpa had had enough. He grabbed the scoop shovel from the shed and chased after him, but Mick had had years of training for this moment. Grandpa never caught Mick, and he would stay with the family for 17 long years. Grandpa’s opinion of dogs changed with Hank, Dale’s dog, whom they often cared for when Dale was away. Grandpa was Hank’s favourite person at mealtime, as he would often sneak tidbits from his own plate. Grandpa was neither a cook nor a shopper. One fishing trip, he didn’t understand why the bacon didn’t cook only to discover that he had bought side pork. His attempt at barbecuing chicken resulted in a choice of red, white or black- none of which were particularly edible and pancakes made in an ordinary pot don’t turn out so well. Luckily, grandma made up for his shortcomings. Our grandpa was practical. Many would call him frugal, but he hated any kind of waste and extravagance. Ask Uncle Dale about buying hotdogs at Slots of Fun. After all you don’t need to eat a foot long hot dog even if it is only a dollar, the 69 cent one would do just fine! And you certainly didn’t need cheese and chili! Also be aware, chocolate milk isn’t included with the 99 cent breakfast at the El Cortez as Dale was reminded every morning. When asked what words described grandpa best, grandma uses the word honest. She said he always paid what he owed and was always willing to put any extra work. He did not believe in mistreating people. He felt that if he owed no one an apology at the end of the day, he had done well. There were many things to say about grandpa, but his philosophy really summed up the person he was: 1.Admit you have a problem 2.Determine what the problem is 3.Decide what to do about it 4.Do it. It’s sometimes hard to believe some of the stories I’ve heard about Grandpa while writing this eulogy. As grandchildren, we only really knew him for a small part of his life. I only really knew the grandpa who took me for rides on his go-kart around the farm and who eased me about having ‘tea’ with my ‘sugar’. What I think everyone knew about grandpa, regardless how long they knew him, was that he was so loved by his family. In his last few days he was nearly always surrounded by children, grand-children, great grand-children and other family and friends. I stand before you today, still overwhelmed with sadness, but I also can’t help but feel a little envious. We should all be so lucky to have so many people who love us. On behalf of our family, we’d like to thank all of you deeply for coming to celebrate our grandfather’s life. It brings us so much comfort to see the faces of friends, acquaintances and colleagues young and old that our grandpa’s life has affected over the years. We look forward to hearing your stories and memories. Lastly, Grandpa loved music and could play almost any instrument. He played in a band and the boys remember him strumming on the acoustic guitar at least once a week. When he visited us and he became tired of the conversation, he would wander off to the living room to play our piano. One of his favourites was the Tennessee Waltz. So to honour his memory, we conclude with one of his favourite songs. If you are listening grandpa, this one’s for you.