Obituary of Lance Graham

Lancelot John Paul Graham was born on July 23, 1940 in Edmonton, Alberta. He was the youngest child of Anni and John. He was also the younger brother of Lore. Lance had four children, Tammie, Lance, Kelly and Carol. Along with being a father, he was a very proud Grandfather of 9 Grandchildren, Richelle, Ken, Jason, Kirsten, Ryan, Justin, Dylan, Seth and Skylar and one Great-Grandchild, our beautiful little Sage. Dad spent his childhood in Evansburg on a small acreage with his Mom, Oma and Lore. His father passed away suddenly when he was only 5 years old. Also nearby lived his Uncle Walter, Aunt Liesel and cousin Ruth. Dad was quite a few years younger than everyone else so I am sure he was quite spoiled as a child. Dad attended school in Evansburg from elementary all the way to high school. His cousin Ruth said that on his first day of school they were walking with him and he was so happy to be going that he skipped all the way to school. Ruth and Lore enjoyed school but they sure weren't as happy to go back like he was. Our dad also liked to play jokes on people. I am sure most of you here today that knew him has had a practical joke or two played on you by him. He loved playing Halloween pranks when he was a teenager, one of them was tipping outhouses over. Keep in mind that in the 1950's there wasn't indoor plumbing so there were a lot of angry people putting their outhouses back up the next morning. When I was little I remember Dad being on the other end of Halloween pranks but Dad was ready for them. Our acreage was kind of in a valley so our only TV was an antenna on a hill up a 30 foot tree. One year teenagers climbed that tree and knocked our antenna off of it. So the next year Dad waited up the hill for the teenagers and sure enough, they showed up to knock the antenna off again. They got away but my Dad did manage to pull a shoe off one of them. Another Halloween tradition in the small town we grew up in was egging of people's vehicles. My Dad had taken us trick or treating and we were driving on main street and our truck was egged. My Dad threw it into park, jumped out and ran after them. Meanwhile, leaving us kids there with the truck door wide open. The police came to the truck and asked where my Dad was and we had no clue. All we knew was he was chasing the people who egged our truck. He did eventually come back never catching the person who egged the truck. At an early age he went on a field trip to Drayton Valley to an oil rig. It was love at first sight.... He came home and built miniature rigs and put them all over the acreage. It turned out to be his life's passion. He realized school just wasn't for him so he quit at the age of 15 and went to work in the oilfield and that is where he would continue working for the rest of his life. He started out as roughneck on a Trident rig near Red Deer. He worked his way up to Derrick man. He was one of the hardest workers I have ever known and never complained about the work to be done, no matter how hard it was. And he was an honest man. You knew if he liked you or not and was well respected by most for that. Most people knew my Dad by the nickname "Haywire" That was given to him in oil patch by his co-workers because of the crazy things he used to do. He was not afraid of anything. One story I heard was him doing a handstand across the monkey boards of a drilling rig. If you've ever seen how high up the monkey boards are, you would realize that was a crazy thing to do. He is a legend in the oilfield and if you mention him by the name Lance, most people would not know him but if you say "Haywire" they knew exactly who you were talking about. He was one of a kind and I don't think there will ever be anyone quite like him again. The main thing in my Dad's life was his family. He married our mother, Jean Spencer in 1964 and they were married 40 years. They shared many ups and downs but were able to raise their family together and have many fond memories of those times. Tammie was born in 1961, Lance in 1966, then Kelly in 1969 and myself in 1970. He also raised his two grandchildren, Jason and Kirsten. He loved them as if they were his own. Dad loved being outdoors and gardening in the summer was one of his favourite things to do. He always had a huge garden full of vegetables. At his acreage in Vermilion the grandkids always looked forward to raiding the pea patch but they weren't very good at throwing away the empty pods. Dad would come home from work, go to his garden and see the peapods on the ground. He then would come into the house and told the grandkids that he knew they were in his garden and they would look all innocent and try to say they weren't. He told them that the sunflowers were watching them and they report back to him when they were in the garden. I used to laugh at how the kids would go up to the sunflowers and try to find their eyes and wondered how they were able to talk to Grandpa. Kirsten said she loved to follow him around when he was rototilling the garden and collect the worms he would dig up. Our Dad always loved Christmas because of the food of course but also took it as a time to have an extra drink or two. One Christmas he had one too many and decided it was time to put the Christmas tree up. All of a sudden we could hear a faint "Help" coming from the living room. We went in to see what was wrong and all we could see was his belly and feet from under the tree, it has fallen on him and he couldn't get up. I wish I would have had the video camera for that one. Ryan told me one of his memories of grandpa was going on family vacations and having to stop at every Dairy Queen along the way. The first few were a nice treat but then we started to get sick of ice cream and dreaded when we would see that Dairy Queen sign. It got to the point where we would sit in the van and wait for my Dad and Dylan, who also shares his Grandpa's love of the DQ treat, to have their ice cream and then carry on our way. Dylan said his fond memory is going to his apartment and Grandpa would be at his computer listening to music and him and Jason would go in his room and dance with him. Our Dad worked many jobs in the oilfield and one of those was with a company called Swaco, a Blowout prevention company that had equipment to prevent or stop an oil rig from a blowout. He specialized in H2S. One of his fondest memories with Swaco was being able to help out with the 1982 blowout in Lodgepole. There he met men like Boots Hanson and Red Adair. His work took him as far north as Tuktoyaktuk and as far south as Texas. He did this job until 1989 when Swaco downsized and he was laid off. He then went to work for Smith International selling drill bits to drilling rigs. I think this was one of his favourite jobs. But taking the job with Smith meant he had to sell the acreage that he grew up on and move to Vermilion. I am sure that was hard on him but he had to do what he had to do to feed his family. One of the highlights of Vermilion was meeting one of his closest friends, Tim Gourley. Tim was more of a son to my Dad than a friend and I know Tim felt the same way about him. He spent many hours at Tim's shop visiting with the Tim, , Les, Wilf and the rest of the guys. He loved those guys and they meant a lot to him. Tim wrote this to me the other day and I thought I would share it with you. Haywire always had a very interesting view on life in general. I had the fortune or (misfortune) of his acquaintance over the years many times. I always enjoyed his stories, of the old days, along with his company. He was a visionary in his own way and presented his views with a real tone of pessimism. If anyone just met Haywire you would think what planet did this old RIG hand come from, but once you got to know him well, he was just a big old softy, that would help you if he could. Dad suffered a massive heart attack in 2000. He spent many months in the hospital trying to recover from it. That is where he earned another nickname which was "the Cement Man" because the doctors couldn't believe how strong he was and that he pulled through. We knew my Dad had an inner strength like no other and if anyone can pull through it was him. These past 9 years with our father and grandfather has been a gift and we are so thankful for them. The worst part of the heart attack for my Dad was the fact he could no longer work and that was very hard because the oilfield was all he knew. He spent his time outdoors as much as he could, visiting friends and spending time with family. Winters were getting harder and harder for him to bare and usually in mid-October he would say, only 154 more days. I would ask what he was talking about, he would answer only 154 more days until winter's over. His saving grace for most of the winter was his love of watching the NFL. He looked forward to his Sunday games especially his Packs and Dolphins. He used to call me to see if I watched the Packers play that day and we would talk about the game. It's unfortunate that he didn't get to see if Brett Favre is really going to stay in retirement. These past few years have been very difficult for my Dad because his health had been progressively failing. He went through a lot but hardly complained because that was not his style. Two years ago he met his good friend Judy. She has been there for our Dad and has helped make his final days easier and I thank you Judy for that. I am not sure he would have made it this long without you. There is so much more I could share about our Dad's life but I think this covers a lot of it. I guess the most fitting way to say good bye to dad is by saying... We all love you and we will miss you Dad, Papa, Chubbs, Grandpa, Gramps and Opa.....so for the final time we will all say "Kelly Down Haywire, your work here is done" Donations in memory of Lance may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society or the Heart & Stroke Foundation.