Obituary of Erven Garnier

B I O G R A P H Y GARNIER: Erven Alfred Garnier passed away in the University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, January 26, 2007 at the age of 88 years. Erven is survived by his children: Lorraine (Robert) Mudryk of Edmonton, Wayne (Val) Garnier of Lloydminster, Stan (Dawn) Garnier of Dewberry, Darlene Garnier of Kelowna, Dennis (Ellie) Garnier of Fanny Bay, Dianne (Bruce) Maddex of Dewberry; fifteen Grandchildren; twenty-one Great Grandchildren; one brother: Bernie Garnier; two sisters: Melie Maltais, Marjorie (Clayton) Hanson and one Sister-in-law Peggy Garnier. Erven was predeceased by: his parents Gus and Annie Garnier, his Grandson Christopher Mudryk; three brothers: Louis Garnier, Edmond Garnier and Ernest Garnier; one sister Marie Garnier. A prayer service was conducted from St. Columbia Roman Catholic Church, Clandonald, Alberta on Tuesday, January 30, 2007. The funeral service for Erven was conducted from the Dewberry Community Hall, Dewberry, Alberta on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 1:30 P.M. with Reverend Father Stan Lasko officiating. A eulogy was given by Wayne Garnier. A solo “Grampa” was sung by Yvette Barnett. Hymns sung were “Amazing Grace,” and “There’ll Be Peace In The Valley,” accompanied on the organ by Jean Bowman. Honorary pallbearers were relatives, friends and all those who shared in Erven’s life. Active Pallbearers were: Nick Garnier, Chad Garnier, Murray Mudryk, Ian Garnier, Shane Ballas, Cody Garnier, Kelly Maddex, Kevin Maddex and Barry Mudryk. Interment followed in the Dewberry Cemetery. McCaw Funeral Service Ltd., of Lloydminster administered the funeral arrangements. Eulogy As I sat down to write something about our dad, I said to myself, boy to live 88 years, a lot of history and a great many changes he must have seen in his lifetime. How the world must have changed since he was a kid till today. Dad was born June 10, 1918 on the farm just 1 ½ miles west of Dewberry. There were eight in the family and there are three still living. Things were poor when he was young. He attended a one room school, with one teacher. Dad quit school in grade seven. I asked him how come you quit, and he said he got bigger than the teacher. But the lack of schooling never hurt him, as he was very good at math and the hard work made him very successful in whatever he did. Dad’s family of three sons and three daughters are all here today. He raised us all the same way, that hard work was the order of the day. He was very close and proud of all of us. As you know, Dad was in the farming and ranching business all his life. He bought thousands of cattle, pigs and horses. He would buy anything, if he thought he would sell it again. Dad told me he even bought a half ton load of frozen white fish off an Indian. He said it took him two days to sell it in the neighborhood, but he got it done and probably made a profit. He also bought lots of land and of course the land had lots of trees on it. He would have it cleared and broke up. I know this for a fact, because every summer we would have to pick roots and rocks off it. I remember one deal he bought a ½ section of land, about 100 range cows, a bunch of pigs and 10 milk cows from this farmer. Dad came home and was telling us about this deal. I said that’s good, but he said we have to milk the 10 cows twice a day, until they are sold. Us boys knew how to milk cows, because we did it every morning before we went to school, but an extra 10 wasn’t that much fun. I think he got them sold in three or four days, which was nice. Dad always bought the cattle by the dollar. He would buy from the neighbors. Their calves and whatever they wanted to sell, always by the dollar. He would drive in the field and have a look at them. I used to go with him when I was a kid, to learn the business. Back at the gate he would pull out his stuff box, turn it over and write a few figures on it. The price he was going to pay for the cattle and tell it to the owner. Usually the deal was done then. I often wondered why he did chew that snuff, but I know there were an awful lot of deals done on the back of the snuff box. Dad didn’t have a calculator everything was done in his head. It is a little different in today’s business. One time he had bought about three hundred calves in the fall from the neighbors. He phoned Ken Watt who was running the Vermilion Auction Market, and told him about the deal and was bringing them in. I asked Dad how much were the selling charges then. He said it was $3/head then. A little different than today. Dad never complained if the market was not good that day. But he must have made some of the time, because he did it all his life. Dad bought lots of horses in his day, but he said the toughest guy to deal with was Jim McCormick. They would argue over $20 difference in the price range. One time Dad bought a bunch of cattle from a farmer from Clandonald. This guy lived back in the bush. The road was terrible getting there. There were cows and calves, two and three year old steers, bulls and I think they all had horns. I was about ten years old then. We had Tom Applegate to truck them out. Dad put me on the outside of the chute, and he told me to count every head that went on the truck. He said they cost $100 each, regardless of what they were, so get a good count. Tom trucked them all back to our home place. Said he never had so many broken horns in his truck. I guess we cleaned them all up, fattened them up and probably sold and made a profit. Dad had a threshing machine to do his harvest. He would do two or three neighbors and his own. It was a fun time of the year. He would hire Allan Bensmiller, Bruce Craig and his brother Ernest to come with their rack and teams to help out. Dad would look after the tractor and threshing machine. I was lucky because I had my own team when I was thirteen. But the best time was the good meals that mom made to eat. Dad used to buy O’Henry chocolate bars by the case. We got one at 10:00 every morning for a snack. Dad wasn’t into politics much, but he did help out in his community by donating things and such. He served on the school board, the health board and a few others I am sure. Dad wasn’t much into taking holidays, it was mostly work all the time. We didn’t get to go to the lake in the summer time. I remember once we had this old tent, and Dad loaded it up and all us kids went up to Garnier Lake, which was named after his Dad. I don’t remember if we had caught any fish because we didn’t have a boat. All I knew is we slept on slough hay in gunny sacks. Dad did take the odd holiday later on in his life. Once he went to the NFR in Oklahoma City. Also he went on a bus tour trips up to the Yukon and Yellowknife, but is was mostly work back at home. Dad wasn’t the best driver either, but he always drove a fairly new truck. He didn’t walk much, he drove everywhere, and especially since he started buying a four wheel drive truck. He thought he could go anywhere then. There was this set of stock racks that he used to load up in the back of the truck when he went to the Auction Market, so that if he bought something he could haul it back home. But you had to drop the end gate of the truck to open the gate of the stock rack. Well Dad would back up to the chute, and usually hit it with a thud. Well a few times like that and the end gate was bent, and a little later on you couldn’t even close the thing. The new truck took the look of an old one in a few months. I guess that’s why he traded them off every year. Dad was bad for remembering names of kids or people who worked for him. He would call them Hey Boy or Hey Girl get over here, or Hey Boy go do that. It was one thing that everyone knew that he did. Dad always had some kid or friend travel with him when he went to the Auction Market or out to look at cattle. I’m not too sure if he loved the company or he just wanted someone to open the gate. Maybe some of both. I guess his favorite time was when he would go to $ Days in Lloydminster. He would get in his chair down at the end of the row. They always let Dad sit there, because he would bid on everything that came in. He would buy something at every sale, whether it would be a milk cow, weaner pigs, or a bred sow. Dad always had a home for whatever he bought. He knew some young farmer that needed it, most of he time. Dad would let the farmer pay for it at a later time if need be. He trusted everybody. He was well liked wherever he traveled. He always bought a round of coffee for the house at the Auction Market. As you know the one thing that Dad loved to do, was eat, and he ate a lot. I guess that’s why he got so big. He didn’t miss many meals if any. He loved to go out to restaurants with friends and relatives for dinner and suppers. Many of you here today had the opportunity to go with him and enjoy his company. And as you all know, Dad always picked up the tab. He wouldn’t have it any other way. It was his way of thanking people for their friendship. The last few years have been long for him, not being able to travel and go to the country and deal with people. The one thing he did do, was to stay in contact with relatives and friends, by the phone calls in the evenings. I’m sure a lot of you out there have talked to him. Dad would fire the questions at you, trying to get all the information that was happening at Dewberry and everywhere else. His favorite saying was, anything else new. He always phoned his family and grandchildren to wish them well. We will miss those calls. As the dust settles on the long road of Dad’s life, he asked me to thank a few people who helped him out a lot in the last few years. Dianne, Danelle, Russell and Marvia for their care and kindness. Thank you to the people who worked for him over the years, many were also relatives. Without their dedication he said that he wouldn’t have been that successful. On behalf of myself and my brothers and sisters we would also like to thank them. Hope to see you down the trail some day Dad. Wayne Card of Thanks The family of the late Erven Garnier would like to thank the staff at the Islay Care Auxiliary Home and the Vermilion Lodge for the special care they gave Dad over the years. Many thanks to all our family and friends who graciously sent cards, food, flowers and monetary donations to various charities in memory of Erven. Thanks to Father Stan Lasko for his comforting words, to Yvette Barnett and Jean Bowman for their special music and to Hozacks for a lovely meal after the service. Special thanks to McCaw Funeral Services Ltd., for your professionalism and to Dale McCaw for your compassion. Lorraine (Robert) Mudryk & Family Wayne (Val) Garnier & Family Stan (Dawn) Garnier & Family Darlene Garnier & Family Dennis (Ellie) Garnier & Family Dianne (Bruce) Maddex & Family Donations in memory of Erven may be made to the Islay Health Centre, CNIB or the Dewberry First Responders.