Rotterdam, Holland and was raised in Grypskirk, Groenigan. At the age of
12, he immigrated to Canada with his family of six to Edam,
Saskatchewan. He had 5 siblings, and he was the 5th child. His family later
bought and farmed land in Forget, Saskatchewan. At the age of 14, he left
the farm and from there had a few different jobs. He worked with the CPR,
trained with the Duke of Connaught Own rifles, and was even part of the
Vancouver police force between 1934 -1940. He then found himself in
Duchess, Alberta working as a farmhand where he fell in love with Janie
May Slatter. They married in 1941. He apprenticed as a mechanic and
then as a carpenter which eventually became his life occupation.
He and Janie adopted two children, Leeanne and Billy, in 1957 and 1959
respectively. His love for his kids was strong and true. His work in
construction took him to Calgary, Prince George, Quesnel and then finally
to Sicamous where he ran his own contracting company. Bill was a firm
believer in God and while in Sicamous was instrumental in working with his
church to build a place of worship. His wife, Janie, died in 1981.
Bill subsequently lived in Salmon Arm for 10 years before moving to Chilliwack to live
close to his daughter in 2005. He was a great father and a
fantastic grandfather to his three grandsons, Joel (Jenny), Matthew
(Kristen) and Caleb Tarzwell. He had the joy of meeting and loving his
great grandchildren - Lucy, Emmaus, John and Everly. He also loved his
step children and their families: Harald (Nicky) and Willy (Jennifer) Bartel,
Tina (Kevin) Neufeld and Melanie (Mark) Lockington. They provided a lot
more great grandchildren- Mariah, Ivy, Emma, Sophie, Chloe, Phoebe, Kaylee, Kian, Kaira, Elijah and Isaiaih - to love and feed licorice allsorts to.
When he died at 103, Bill had lived a full, rich life, was full of gratefulness to
God's goodness and knew the love and respect of his family and many
friends. His body just gave out and he went home to be with his Lord on
Thursday, January 9th. The family suggests that in lieu of flowers a donation in his memory to the Christian Blind Mission - hopeandhealing.org would be honoring to his heart passions.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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