Gregory Dale Patience

We are sad to announce the passing of our brother (Gregory) Dale Patience on Dec 10. Dale was predeceased by his mother Kay in 1996 and his father Beaton in 2012. He leaves his sisters Linda Patience Ball of Mexico, Sandy Masuda (Gerry) of Penticton, and Heather Patience of Agassiz. He also leaves his nephew Derek Ball (Nancy) of Ontario.

When he was young, Dale liked to be on the move. No armchair quarterbacking or tinkering under the hood for him. As a teenager he would spend all Saturday out somewhere on his bike. Later he walked many, many miles through the wild country.

Dale was ten years older than his two younger sisters, and he spent many hours entertaining us, helping us with projects, tricking us with practical jokes, and hand-making funny cards for our birthdays. He used to make us laugh a lot!

Born in Halifax, Dale stayed behind in Ontario when the family moved to Mission. He held a variety of jobs there, including working as an underground gold miner in Kirkland Lake. Dale rejoined the family in 1972, and bought his house on 4th Ave in 1976. Several seasons were spent on the BC coast, planting trees. He worked for the City of Port Coquitlam for many years as a swamper on the back of a garbage truck. He liked to say he had a PhD in garbology: Piled Higher and Deeper. This gave him the opportunity to scavenge items he later sold at garage sales, both at his house and his parents’ on Hillcrest Ave.

Dale retired from the City for a while, enjoying fishing, exploring the back country, and socializing at coffee shops, starting at the Cedar Valley store. He was a regular at Rocko’s, arriving early to get to the newspaper crossword puzzle first, and spending so much time there that owners Nick and Adele put his name on his favourite stool.

Retirement didn’t last and he went into business as Dale the Clean-Up Guy. This kept up his supply of reclaimed items for his garage sales. Eventually he included work for Atlas Drywall in his clean-up business, where he stayed for about 15 years until this past July, when ill health forced him to resign.

Dale had a special place in his heart for Lindsay and Cody, children of his longtime friend Wendy Marsh (Lambert). No doubt they remember some fun times with him, too.

As his health deteriorated, he spent more time at the A & W, newspaper spread in front of him, solving the crossword and checking the stock market reports. Our thanks go out to the staff there.

Eventually Dale was admitted to Mission Hospital and spent his last four weeks there, with frequent trips to Abbotsford Hospital. Our gratitude goes out to the staffs of both hospitals for their round-the-clock care of our brother.

We would also like to thank the many friends and neighbours who offered help and expressed concern over Dale’s health.

If you have a favourite youth charity, a donation would be very thoughtful.

There will be no service at this time.