Bea and Bert

Auntie Bea and Uncle Bert
Moose Jaw,
Thursday, May 1, 2014
by Timothy W. Shire

I had the surprising good fortune to not only have my loving parents, but my mother had eight siblings and my father three. At one time or another, it was a true blessing to share in such a family and in several cases, being with my aunts and uncles was indeed, completely like being at home.

Auntie Bea was my father's older sister who left her family behind on the farm and went to Regina to become a stenographer and then on to Ottawa during the war to work. There she met Uncle Bert, a farm boy from west of Moose Jaw, serving with the South Saskatchewan Regiment. They married in 1943 and once he came back from the war, they were together until January 2013 when her life ended. He kept playing the fiddle and maintained an active life in Moose Jaw until April 12, only a day after being admitted to hospital. He was ninety-four and left behind one son, two grandsons and three great grand children.

It is ironic that we can sum up the life of some one in just a few lines of text, when it takes millions of events that bring so many people out to celebrate the memory of such a life. In both of their funerals, it was standing room only, because their lives had so much meaning, not just to each other, but to everyone they encountered, at work, community projects, volunteering and in their social life during retirement.
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As with most who went off to war it was something that never was out of his mind, but Uncle Bert came back to farming then he, his wife and seven year old son packed their stuff onto an old truck and went to Moose Jaw.
Bea went to work and Bert went from farm hand to bus mechanic, then joined the postal service. After years as a postal inside worker he hit the streets as a cheerful letter carrier, who truly loved his work and the people he met each day. He then went back inside to be a post master in Assiniboia, Fox Creek and Watrous.

Though we often define people by their work, in both Auntie Be a and Uncle Bert's lives, work was never the focus of their lives. They appreciated their good fortune to be alive and they made sure that they had time for fun and lots of hobbies. Bert was an accomplished buggy wheel maker, assembling these remnants of the past and bringing them back to life. His fiddle was always ready for a dance and his partner was always ready to bring cheer and good spirits to every event. Amazingly, she danced far after the time her hips made walking almost impossible.

I know it seems odd to say this, because clearly we all only last so long, but this couple outlasted almost all their contemporaries and living into their nineties seems like they still left way to early.

Ensign

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