Peter Paul Duchscherer

It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Duchscherer announce his peaceful passing on Tuesday June 7, 2011 at River Heights Lodge at the age of 87. Peter was born in Blumenfeld, SK on March 17, 1924 to Bernard and Christina Duchscherer, the third youngest of 15 children. He spent most of his adult life in North Battleford, and retired from the Saskatchewan Hospital in 1984 after serving as a security guard for 30 years. He was predeceased by his parents, 3 sisters, and 8 brothers. He is survived by three sisters, numerous nieces and nephews, and countless friends. A Celebration of Peter’s life was held at 11:00 am on Thursday, June 16, 2011 from Wilson & Zehner Funeral Home. If friends so desire, donations in Peter’s memory may be made to the River Heights Lodge Auxiliary, 2001-99th Street, North Battleford, SK S9A 0S3.

The family would like to thank the wonderful staff of River Heights Lodge West Wing for all their kindness, caring, and compassion, and for making Peter comfortable in his ‘new home.’

Eulogy – by Bea Geering

Today we are here to celebrate the life and times of Peter Duchscherer, who preferred to be called Pete. Pete was born March 17, 1924 in Blumenfeld, Saskatchewan, which is located close to Prelate in southern Saskatchewan. Pete passed away June 7, 2011 at the age of 87 at River Heights Lodge in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

Pete will be greatly missed by his three sisters Lonnie, Tillie, and Ann; especially his loving niece Donna Jamieson and her husband Wes, great nieces Sheri and Kim, her husband Geoff and their two children Brynn and Rhett; his loving nephew Wayne Duchscherer, his wife Gloria, their children Tonya and Kevin, his wife Karen and their two children Veronica and Zachary. He will also be missed and remembered by many other nieces, nephews, and their families, as well as coworkers and dear friends, some I may not know their names to mention today.

Pete was one of 15 children of Bernard and Christina Duchscherer, Romanian immigrants in the early 1900s. His family settled south of Prelate, where Pete attended Disberg school achieving a grade 8 education, which was a good education for those days. Living on the farm in the dirty 30s was a great challenge for them all, and helped build Peter’s strong and positive character. His mother grew a large and bountiful garden, water with dugout water. Even though it never rained and the land and crops were exceptionally dry, they always had plenty of water. They had lots of snow in that area in the winters, and the spring melt filled the large dugouts and well. The dust storms were humongous as well, having to keep the lights on during the day to see. Even though they endured many hardships during the dirty 30s, Pete said they were happy and they never went hungry. In fact, they ate better than most.

He enjoyed strudels and buttermilk, which he remembers as his favourite food of his youth. Pumpkin and apple strudels were his favourites to this day, which he made and shared with many of us.

Pete was the youngest boy in the family and said he received special attention because of it.

Pete left the farm and traveled to Toronto visiting his sister. He stayed the winter, working at a factory that sharpened teeth of circular saws for cutting down trees. In the spring he came back to the farm.

In 1954, he moved to North Battleford and moved in with his brother Don and his wife Kay and their family. He got a job at the Sask Hospital where he worked for two years on the ward, and then moved into Security where he stayed for the next 30 years until retirement.

Pete was a member of the Knights of Columbus and was initiated in Calgary.

He enjoyed playing his guitar all dressed up in his cowboy outfit, cowboy hat, and shiny boots, with his stone black hair slicked back just so.

Walter remembers fishing for walleye at Waterhen with his mother, Pete, and George. Pete also enjoyed fishing at Waterhen with Don, Kay, Donna, and Walter.

He enjoyed hunting with his friends Al, Vern, and Greg Hoffinger, and yearly looked forward to helping with the harvest.

Pete enjoyed the simple things in life. Like the rain falling down, the lightning, and the stars in the sky, the spring urn offs, and later the crops in the fields.

Walter remembers Pete coming and cheering at every one of his games at the Atton’s Lake Ball Tournaments, then talking about the pitches and good plays for some time after. Also Peter teaching him how to hunt and fish, giving him his first shiny new whirl away fishing rod, but most importantly taking the time to teach him how to use it.

Pete enjoyed and loved drawing, especially animals, birds, and scenery.

He looked forward to fish and homemade French fries at Adam Bevelander’s with Vicky and Danny Leibel’s company, after a successful fishing trip. Barbecues at Mike and Sheila’s with his favourite Chokecherry wine. Good medicine, the best medicine in the world.

He told Walter he enjoyed Wayne’s company when he stayed there for four days while he worked at the Sask Hospital. Oh how he really liked it when Tonya spend summer days with him. And Tonya loved Pete like he was her grandpa.

He spent many good times with Wes, Donna and family at their cabin at Turtle Lake and their house in Saskatoon, enjoying good fishing, food, and company on many holiday weekends.

When driving to Saskatoon he’d often mention “That building wasn’t there 30 years ago.”

Pete told Kim one day how Brynn was so precious, she was worth so much more than a million dollars. He’d have to give her a couple of million dollars for her.

I still remember after a hunting trip we popped over to tell Pete about our day. Walter told Pete that we had seen six porcupines in a short two mile stretch. Pete said “what what what what what? And you didn’t shoot one? I never ate porcupine.” The very next day as we’re driving in the country, Walter shot the first porcupine we saw, brought it home, cooked it, and called Pete to come over for his first porcupine meal. It tasted like pork, but was real tough. After he polished off a bowl of vanilla ice cream and two pumpkin cookies, Pete said, “Oh oh what a feast. A meal fit only for pirates and kings.” Pete said this after he really enjoyed a meal.

Pete moved to River Heights Lodge on January 28, 2010 where he enjoyed watching Bonanza, Clint Eastwood movies, Canadian Geographics, curling, baseball, and his favourite Montreal Canadiens hockey team.

Pete will always be remembered as a wonderful man; warm, kind, and loving with a very positive outlook on life.

Thanks for all you’ve done for us and taught us. You taught us that the cup is always half full. I’ll always remember you as I say my rosary, one of the rosaries you gave me.

We’ll miss you… “Pete.”

SHARED MEMORIES

By

Wes Jamieson

We are here to celebrate the life of Pete and to share a few memories. And what a great life he had. Pete, as he liked to be called was the third youngest in a family of 15 – 9 boys and 6 girls. He used to say if a family stopped at having 12 children, the neighbours thought something was wrong with them! He came from a very musical background with 4 boys and 1 girl playing anything from the accordion, guitar and mouth organ. And how they all loved to sing! Pete and his younger sister Ann used to go to a radio station in Moose Jaw and sing and play on the weekends. They even cut a record! It would take some coaxing to put the accordion in Pete’s hand and after a few “forgot how to’s” his fingers would fly over the keys. We could sit for hours listening to them play and singing German songs.

Uncle Pete lived most of his life in North Battleford having worked as a security guard at the Saskatchewan Hospital for 30 years. He made many friends over those years. He liked to work nights as he always ranted about the huge supper he would have there. He used to say after he retired especially on cold winter nights “I don’t have to go to work tonight.”

Hunting and fishing were his passion. He loved to go the Hoffinger farm in Salvador in the fall whether it was for opening the fields in readiness for harvest, helping with the harvest or goose hunting. He would ride on the swather for the opening round of a field, walk the field and then estimate the bushels per acre the field would produce and from what I heard, he was pretty close on his estimates. Prior to leaving for the farm he would spend days buying groceries to fill his truck to take to the farm and after being there a week would come back and wonder why he put on so much weight. I think Wilma’s cooking had a lot to do with the extra weight.

His garden was his pride and joy. Whether you were a friend or stranger you would have to go out to look at his garden. The rows were always perfectly straight and not one weed in it. You dare not take any new potatoes or small cucumbers for fresh eating, as Donna found out, they were not big enough yet. The kitchen counter was always full of his huge tomatoes and potatoes carefully lined up for everyone to see. When everything was harvested he usually gave it all away.

Uncle Pete had great neighbours in Adam and Sija. The path between both homes was well worn summer and winter. Siza was always cooking up a meal and how Uncle Pete loved those mounds of French fries! Whenever we would go to visit him, there would be a different aroma in the house and you knew that he and Adam were cooking up a batch of wine or “nectar of the gods” as he called it. I am sure everyone that came to the house had to sample it.

He spent lots of time with our family at our cabin at Turtle Lake. All the neighbours got to know him as he was usually visiting someone. The ritual was to get the coffee pot ready in the evening so that all he had to do was turn it on in the morning. After the pot was empty, the coughing would start and it was an indication for us to get up. Then when he was doing one of his favourite things – frying bacon on a large pan on the bar-be-cue, the coughing would start again, another indication to me that he needed his medicine (a shot of Crown Royal or Alberta Springs). As the shot of whiskey went down, he would entertain us with a twitch and a little jig on the deck. One time it startled my sister-in-law so much she thought he was having a heart attack (which he wasn’t). He could eat the better part of a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon in the morning then wonder why no one was giving him competition at the breakfast table. He was so happy the day our grandson Rhett gave him some competition eating pancakes. In his innocent way he couldn’t figure out why Geoff and Kim’s dog would always go to him as soon as he sat at the table – no wonder, he was feeding him under the table! He would love to stand out at the end of the dock and watch and wait for the lightning and thunder as the storm brewed until we had to practically drag him into the cabin. He loved fishing and cooking and eating it as well. He could hardly wait until we had the annual fish fry at the cabin where he would cook fish in pounds of butter for over 70 of my relatives. Everyone looked forward to that day knowing Uncle Pete was the chief cook.

Pete was Uncle to everyone and often commented how my family and our friends even called him Uncle. It gave him great pride. He was respected by everyone that knew him. In talking with one of the staff at the River Heights Lodge recently she commented that she had bought him some slippers and a shirt. She said there are just some people that you want to do those things for and Uncle Pete was one of them. One of the other nurses commented how he must have been quite the ladies man! He loved his “new home” at River Heights Lodge and they loved him. After returning there from a few days in the hospital recently he told one of the staff that he had come back home to spend his last few days.

Grandma Duchscherer was always concerned there would be no one to look after her son. If she only knew. It was evident by everyone around him how much they cared for him especially by Walter and Bea. They would always bring him home cooked meals or have him over to their place for a bar-b-que. Uncle Pete always looked forward to when they would take him for rides in the country whether it was to watch the spring runoff or to look at the crops. We are so ever grateful to Walter for his help in getting Uncle Pete settled in River Heights Lodge when we were away and for your concerns and visits.

Donna received an e-mail from one of her cousins in BC who commented, I quote “he will be missed but not forgotten. There was not a gentler or kinder man to be found. Even our kids remember his famous fish fry’s. They even remember him sleeping on our picnic table after a few “old style beer”. Man could he snore.”

Uncle Pete will leave some good memories in the minds and hearts of everyone that knew him. We will miss him dearly.