Obituary of Doni Tandberg

Doni is survived by: his wife Granny Olga of Lloydminster; six children: Dale Crossland, Chico Crossland, Josie Richard, Val Tradewell, Fred Crossland, Wayne Crossland; eighteen grandchildren; special granddaughter Raylene; three great grandchildren as well as numerous other relatives. The following tribute is a Celebration of Grandpa's life. A man is born, he lives and then he dies. Sounds so simple, but few men had as much passion for life as Don and he always tried to have fun. Grandpa started and ended each day with laughter. He loved to giggle and get goofy. History--- Born July 17 1934 in Toronto, Doni Tandberg was the 3rd child of 11 children. He is survived by 5 siblings. Don was known by a variety of names to the people who knew him and loved him. Doni to his sisters, Don to most of the people who knew him, Dad, Uncle Don, Grandpa, Grandpa Don we all knew who we were talking about and certainly it didn't make any difference to him. Raised in Toronto for his early years, Grandpa was 6 or 7 years old when Great Grandpa Sverre moved the family out to the homestead near Huntsville. They worked in the bush with horses, logging and clearing land. Cutting pulp wood was the main source of income and everyone in the family including the kids helped. Grandpa used to talk to us of growing up in the bush and how hard his dad worked trying to raise a family. He would describe working in the bush with his dad, limbing trees with an axe when he was younger, falling trees with a Swede saw as he got older. And then his eyes would light up and he would describe lunch in the bush. They would make a fire and heat up their onion and pork fat sandwiches. Grandpa loved his onions. Family---Bereft of the love of a good mother, with an unbearably hard childhood, this young child, boy and later young man turned to his aunty Vendla for what he lacked in family love. Don said that he would have gone hungry many a time without her. Don always thought of her as his example of what a family really was. Granny--- Don had various relationships over the years but it wasn't until Olga entered his life that he finally found the family ties, the bonding he had been searching for all his life. One of the many things Don loved about Granny was how she held her family together. Family was everything to Grandpa. Anything Granny asked, Grandpa would do, lots of complaining first but he always came through for her. "Olga was his little Ukranian". Grandpa inherited a family gravely wounded but held together by a really strong women, my mother Olga. To his credit he had patience, eventually winning the trust and love of all the family. Our family truly became his family. Sensitive to all the nuances of young teenagers he never tried to push his way in, rather standing back, ready to offer his help when we needed it. Don was not a violent man he never hit a child or a women, he couldn't stand the thought of someone he loved in pain. Extremely proud of his grandkids, Grandpa's eyes would glow describing something one of his grand kids did or achieved. Grandkids---Grandpa always had time for his grandkids, one of his favorite things was watching the babies eat. It would start out with Grandpa feeding them and pretty soon they would be feeding him back and he would just laugh at the mess. Babies always had a soft spot in his heart. He loved the innocence of children, they could never do any wrong. Baby sitting---Grandpa Don loved the kids Granny babysat. Often able to charm even the shyest of the kids, pretty soon they would be sitting on his lap, or come running to meet him when he came home from work. He loved to hear the giggles and laughter of kids having fun. Money---Money was not that important to Grandpa. As long as he had enough to live, as long as Granny was comfortable, he was happy. Grandpa worked at many things, everything from logging, construction laborer, cement contractor and landscaping. Don could do anything but his passions were Carpentry, Equipment operating and trucking. Truck Driver---Grandpa owned and operated his own Trucks for years, many the grandchild that was thrilled to be able to ride in Grandpa's truck and especially to be able to yank that air horn. He took Granny with him on many runs. Sometimes they were gone for months at time. Oscar remembers how impressed he was by Grandpa's driving skills, he watched him back his truck with a B-Train, that's two trailers, into the back alley in one shot. Most of the grandkids remember at least one time Grandpa got stuck with his big truck. He would stop and visit with the big truck, then turning that rig around was sometimes pretty hard. Grandpa loved it when they would tease him about getting stuck. He could always laugh at himself first. Equipment Operator--- Don had a natural aptitude as an equipment operator and could operate anything. He was like a kid with a new toy whenever he had the chance to jump on a new piece of equipment. Operating grader was Don's favorite. He couldn't wait for spring so he could get back on that grader. Don loved working on the cat at Fred's place. Grandpa was like a kid in the sandbox he just wanted to keep digging. Granny wanted to go home already and Grandpa wanted to finish the fish pond. Grandpa was like that with any project, finishing it right was important to him. Grandpa dug the basement for Val and Don's first house using a D7 cat, something not every operator would be able to do. He finished off landscaping the exterior of the hill, being extremely proud of the final product. Grandpa couldn't wait for spring so he could get back on that grader. Able to retire he kept working because he loved it. He worked till the day he died and he would have been proud of that. Carpentry--Don was a perfectionionist, everything had to be done to the very best of his ability. Don was prone to take things apart again and again until he got it right. He would drive Granny crazy with his carpentry, she would tell him "Don that's good enough", but that wasn't good enough for Grandpa we would hear him say "No I got a better idea" and off he would go, take it apart and start over. Looking around the house and yard the evidence of his passion for carpentry is very clear. The renovations at the house are a testament to his persistence and determination. For years we all shared Grandpa, he worked on all our homes or places. He leaves every one of us kids a legacy of his unique style of building and finishing. And every event was also a lot of fun. Grandpa could laugh at himself first. Wendy loved to tease Grandpa about the tools he left behind in the walls. He used to tease Fred that if he wanted to do something at home he would come to Fred's and practice first. Memory---Grandpa Don was notorious for forgetting stuff. Most visits from Grandpa were followed by a call from Granny asking us to send back something Grandpa had left behind. And oh then the teasing would start. What tools, I thought those were mine. We would make Grandpa describe in great detail the particular tool. Most everyone was involved at one time or another in looking for Grandpa's glasses or his keys. Morris and Helen talked about the time Grandpa lost his glasses in the lake. Everyone went searching, they found them, Grandpa went swimming with the kids again and lost them again. Twice in the same day and in the lake. Laughter--- Grandpa loved to laugh, everyone remembers Grandpa's giggle and that twinkle in his eye. He could get really goofy and have fun with everyone from the oldest to the youngest. We all had private jokes that we shared with Don. The time he cut his thumb working at Fred and Wendy's, he had to teach Wendy how to apply the drywall mud cause he couldn't do it himself. So every time they would go up town to get something he would point to Wendy and tell people Wendy was his Mudder. Florence remembers Don saying "Good night John Boy" at the cabin. That comment had 6 seniors laughing so hard their sides hurt. Grandpa used to always ask Daniel if he had eaten any bananas today. Grandpa used to joke with Daniel that that eating bananas increases your brain cells. Then he would tell Daniel "Looks like you should get on that." Or the time grandpa had the grandkids at the pool. Daniel was only about 3 or 4 years old and told Grandpa he had to go to the bath room, so grandpa said "ahhhh just go in the pool," so Daniel stood up whipped down his bathing suit and proceeded to follow grandpa's instructions. Grandpa laughed so hard he cried telling us that one. Fred and Josie in their teenage years, used to sneak Grandpa's vehicle and of course filling it up with gas afterwards didn't happen, more than once Don had to walk, then he'd cuss. But never would he say anything to Josie or Fred. They only thought they were fooling him. Grandpa was so proud of Fred and Chico. Called them natural operators. "Show them once he'd say and they got it". He started Fred on the cat when Fred was only 12 years old. Grandpa loved being able to pass on his skills. Although Grandpa couldn't shot any animals he loved to hunt with us, he was there for Daniel's first deer and loved to brag up the time Fred shot his elk. "300 yards" he'd say "and right thru the heart". The fact that Leona hunted was always amazing to Grandpa and he'd tease me that I'd better watch out, Leona could shoot. We all knew Grandpa was handicapped when it came to house work. Wendy tells about the time Grandpa was vacuuming up dust from his carpentry, only the plug was out of the vacuum cleaner, so as he's sucking up the dust at one end the machine is blowing it out at the other end. Ohhh Wendy teased him about that one. Granny talked about the time Fred and Grandpa got drinking and grandpa cooked a stew and burned the pot. Grandpa hid the pot out behind the apple tree. She found it the next day, took Grandpa a lot of scrubbing to clean that pot. Grandpa loved to play board games. Risk was one of his favorites and he always played to win. Some of those games lasted for hours. Look out when Grandpa won, especially if it was against Wayne or me, he didn't let us forget. But mostly we just had fun. Alfie remembers Grandpa's brand new Mack truck, Grandpa took him for a ride at Tudya Lake provincial park and showed him how to do burnouts in the parking lot and on the grass. Tyler remembers how Grandpa would always tease him about his first vehicle, it wouldn't start and Tyler wandered if it was low on antifreeze. Grandpa teased him about that for the longest time. Mitch remembers how he was trying to take off the clutch from his skidoo, grandpa told him how to use some clamps to remove the clutch, When Mitch tightened up the clamps a big piece broke out of the clutch. Grandpa was so proud of Mitch's mechanic skills and used to tease him for the longest time about that clutch. Amanda remembers grandpa working at their house and grandpa's food choices always caused her to laugh. Grandpa's favorite dessert was peaches and cream with a scoop of ice cream and then he would drink a beer. Scott's memories include Grandpa saying "Gotta learn sometime" Winter time Lac La Biche, Scott and Grandpa are going someplace and he throws Scott the keys, "But Grandpa I'm only 14 and I've never driven before and never in the winter. "Gotta learn sometime". As there're driving by the lake Grandpa looks over at Scott with a twinkle in his eye. He asks Scott have you ever done donuts? "Gotta learn sometime" so Scott proceeded to drive cautiously onto the ice. Grandpa grabs his leg, pushes it down and says "pin it" lets do a real donut. That's what they did for the next 10 or 15 minutes. The next driving episode was in Lloydminster, Grandpa needed beer, threw the keys at Scott and said lets go. "But Grandpa I've never driven in the city before". "Gotta learn sometime" and away they went. Got to the liquor store, Grandpa gets out, walks to the door, looks back with a strange look on his face, you guessed it "Gotta learn sometime" Scotts first experience in a liquor store was when he was only 14. They get home, Grandpa hands Scott a beer, Granny gives him heck of course and you guessed it, "Gotta learn sometime". Raylene remembers Grandpa dressing up like Santa Clause, he had a crack in his thumb nail and Rayleen told him "my Grandpa has one just like that" Grandpa would do anything for the grandkids. Rayleen loved it when Grandpa would pick her up in his big truck after school, or the times he would walk her to school and skip with her all the way. Don didn't care what other people thought. Grandpa was a kid at heart. All the grandkids remember the water fights, Grandpa was always right in there. He had his own Water gun and he always made sure it was the biggest, latest model. He had his own slingshot, remote controlled car and paintball gun. Grandpa's great grandkids used to get so excited to go to visit Granny and Grandpa. Grandpa used to spin them on his office chair, he would spin them and spin them until Granny would say "Don that's enough their going to get sick" Then the kids would insist that Grandpa get on the chair and he would. The kids would spin him arms and legs up in the air giggling. Granny used to tell him to "grow up Don". Thank God he never did. Working on this tribute I talked to as many of the grandkids as I could. So many of them talked about his giggle, how his eyes would sparkle and his smile. Grandpa would have loved them to have that memory. Ending---A man is born, he lives and then he dies. It sounds so simple but the reality is that what happens in between is what makes us the people we are. Grandpa our lives are all infinitely richer for having known and loved you. You made a difference. In closing I would like to invite everyone for lunch after the service, at the Gospel fellowship church. The grand kids have a slide show prepared and some more open mike time. Donations may be made to the Children's Wish Foundation or to a Charity of the Donor's Choice.