Obituary of Germaine Ramstad

Germaine Marie Ramstad passed away, with family by her side, at Lady Minto Heath Care Centre, Edam, Saskatchewan on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at the age of 91 years.

Germaine is survived by: her children, Marie (Laurie) Milnthorp, Gilbert Ramstad, Edward (Pat) Ramstad, Roy Ramstad, Charles (Erika) Ramstad, Josephine (Craig) Iverson, Andrew (Eloise) Ramstad, Donna (Perry) Iverson and Teresa (Darren) Poliakiwski; seventeen grandchildren and 26 great grandchildren; siblings, Dorothy Johnson, Francois (Joe) Imbeau, Lena (Rod) MacArthur, Leon (Jenny) Imbeau, Adeline (Florent) Pitre, Helen (Gary) Carnell and Julie Imbeau; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Germaine was predeceased by: her loving husband, Roy Ramstad; siblings, Terese Wildeman, Charles (Joe) Imbeau and Bernadette Marsh.

The Funeral Service for Germaine will be held on Monday, September 7, 2020 at 11:00 AM. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, this service is by invitation only. Those who cannot attend in person may view the live streaming of the service. A link for the live streaming will be posted on our website at the time of the service.

Donations in memory of Germaine may be made to Lady Minto Health Care Centre or the donor's charity of choice.

Eulogy:

Good Morning, I am Amy Ray, one of Germaines’ many grandchildren and I am here to share with you some memories of her life.

Germaine Marie Imbeau was born on October 27, 1928 to Joesef and Maire Imbeau at the Edam Lady Minto hospital. She was the 2nd child of 11. At the age of 5 grandma and her sister Dorothy who was 7 went to and from school on a horse and buggy all on their own. They were expected to hook up and unhook the horse, put the horse in the barn once they got to school and feed the horse once it was there. She attended school at St Cyril School and St Hippolyte to grade 8. After that she worked for farmers doing housework, cooking, cleaning and looking after the kids. Some farmers she remembered working for were Corbeils , Dions, Pelchats and John Blanchette. She also remembered worked for a threshing crew in a cook house.

At the age of 17 Grandma started working at the lady minto hospital in edam where she worked for 6 years. At this time she barely knew any English as at home & school they mostly spoke French. She met Roy Ramstad at a dance at Cole School west of Edam when she was 20. Two years later they got married on Nov 7, 1950 in the Edam rectory. Once they were married they lived on the Frazer farm and they both worked on the dairy farm, Marie was born here in April of 1951. They later moved to the Wilson Place which was a house on another quarter or land that Armand & Dorothy Audoorn owned where Roy worked on a Cat pushing bush and doing custom farming. Grampa worked for Armand from 1950 until the later years of his life. While living here Gilbert was born in Oct of 1952 and Ed in April of 1954 . Next they moved to Edam to a 2 bedroom house that had once been a store right next to Levassers Garage. They lived here for quite a number of years. Here they had Roy in Jan of 1956, Charlie Nov of 1957, Josie May of 1959, Andy, Sept of 1961 and Donna Sept of 1963. After that they moved to a 2 story house next to the credit union where Teresa was born in Feb of 1966. They moved to the house next to the school around 1975. Once her family was grown in the late 70’s grandma got a job at the Hardcastle school for 7 years as a janitor. She also cleaned the local bar on Sunday mornings.

Grampa passed away in 1993. Grandma lived on her own for awhile and then Roy lived with her for a year. After he moved out Gilbert moved in and stayed living with grandma right up until she moved into the manor in the summer of 2016. In late fall of2017 Grandma moved into longterm care at the Lady Minto where she passed away on March 24 2020.

Gramma & Grampa loved to camp. At first they camped in a canvas tent mostly at Turtle Lake at Cops Cove. Grandma hauled handmade quilts for all the kids to sleep on. All the meals were cooked on an open fire pit. It was a lot of work but grandma loved it. After the canvas tent grandpa built a homemade truck camper which they camped in all over Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC. The kids remember being packed into the truck camper like sardines. Eventually they bought a motorhome and continued to travel. They travelled all over Canada, going as far as the Yukon, Fort St John, and Vancouver Island. Camping was a major part of their life and all the kids have great memories of spending time together camping.

Grandma was an avid sewer, quilter and embroiderer. She has made hundreds of quilts, pillows, dolls, bears, monkeys etc. that she has passed down to her kids, grandkids and great grankids. She used to set up booths at the Fall Fair and local craft shows and sell her work. When she was a little girl she always wanted an Eatons porcelain doll and they couldn’t afford it, so she continued to have a love of dolls throughout her life. A lot of her projects were made from old clothes, jackets, and scraps that she saved and that people had given her over the years. Grandma was very thrifty and she saved everything in case she had a use for it later.

One thing a lot of us remember is that grandma loved babies. Anytime there was a new baby in the family grandma couldn’t wait to get her hands on it and snuggle it. Just recently before she passed in March grandma got to meet her newest great grand baby at that time, Carter and she was so thrilled, you could tell it gave her so much joy.

Grandma didn’t just love babies, her passion was her family and she was so proud of each and every one of us. She carried around albums of all of her kids and grandkids and would jump on the opportunity to show anyone her pictures of them and brag about all of their achievements in life.

Something all of the grandkids looked forward to at grandmas house was her jar of mints. Even when she moved to the manor and later Lady Minto she took that mint jar with her and it was the first thing my boys looked for when we came to visit grandma.

Grandma was most often a very happy person and had an awesome sense of humor. One memory that stands out for me was one Christmas at our farm east of Meota. My husband Jasons grandma Marion Ray was there as well. Marion had her feet up on a chair & she was wearing a skirt with stockings. Our oldest son Jaxon who was 2 at the time walked by and rubbed Marions leg to feel the stockings and they both giggled. Then Grandma Ramstad leaned over and said to Marion, I bet it’s been a long time since you’ve had your leg rubbed like that. It was hilarious.

Grandma has left quite a legend in her passing. 9 incredible children, 17 amazing grand children and 27 great grandchildren.  Grandma you will be dearly missed, I hope you sitting in your lawn chair overlooking a lake in your truck camper with Grampa up in heaven