Gerard Donald Grossman

Peacefully on January 7, Jerry was called home by our loving Father. There, he was welcomed by his loving wife Merle, daughter Gail, granddaughter Rachel, his parents and all his siblings for a heavenly reunion and celebration in the glory of God’s full and unending love!

He leaves to mourn, his five sons, Gerry (Nancy), Mark, Mike (Tracy), Paul (Sandra), and Norm (Sue) as well as thirteen grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, many extended family members and a multitude of friends.

Jerry’s life and love was his family and the farm they lived on. He devoted much hard work, laced with even more love, to providing the food, shelter, and other necessities of life in an environment of growth, learning, and with lots of room to play. All of this was for his pride and joy, his wife and children. He leaves a legacy of precious memories of that place and time including remembrance of everything he did with us and for us.

Gerard Donald Grossman was born April 15, 1932, at St Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg and later baptized at St Boniface Cathedral. Jerry recently joked that his last home at Residence Despin is almost exactly centered between the hospital and the cathedral.

“I haven’t gone very far”, he said with that sly look and wide grin he liked to use whenever he made a funny.

Baptized as Gerard, then called Jerry by parents and siblings, until he was enrolled in school as Gerald. He spent the next 20 years formally as Gerald or Jerry to almost everyone else. It wasn’t until he went to apply for and receive his birth certificate, which as a surprise to him, did not match his school records or what he called himself. The bureau would not release his birth certificate until his mother came to officially swear that he was her son and that his name was actually Gerard.

Jerry grew up on farms near Lorette, Manitoba, acquiring a strong work ethic that he passed on to his children later. Life on the farm could be very busy with various chores and the Grossman children often started these at a young age. Jerry would get up early in the morning with his father and help with the milking. At six years old, he walked a mile to bring lunch to his father who was out working in the field with a team of horses pulling a mower to cut hay. While his father ate, Jerry made a round with the team even though he was barely able to reach the mower levers and controls that were designed for an adult.

Farming as a way of life was instilled very early in his life. He had many adventures and experiences, like the time at seven-years-old, he was out pumping water for the cows from the cast-iron hand pump and thunder from an incoming storm began to boom. Remembering his parent’s warning to ‘never touch iron when there is a thunderstorm’, he ran as fast as he could to the house but slipped and fell right on top of a fresh cow pie.

Jerry went to Prairie Grove school from grades three to eight after the family moved there in 1942. He was 12 years old when he got his first pair of glasses, and was amazed to look around and be able to see trees in the distance. Hard work on the farm was simply an accepted part of life and Jerry, along with his brothers and father cleared over a hundred acres of trees, sawing it and loading it onto a trailer to be sold. They then broke the land, working it with a discer and picking roots by hand until it was finally sown into wheat in 1950. Jerry started driving tractors at age 17 and even drove a newly purchased one home through St Boniface when the roads were closed and diked from the 1950 flood.

Jerry finished grade eight in 1947 and then quit school. However the results of Jerry’s exams convinced a teacher to encourage Jerry to continue his studies. He was in the top ten percent of Manitoba. His mother thought that was pretty good, so she enrolled him in Winnipeg, at Provencher School in St. Boniface.

He made a lot of new friends in grade ten. Everything went well until the 1950 spring flood, when the school was closed in early May.

In 1950, Jerry went out looking for work and found many jobs; from working in a coal yard filling bags of coal, to working at the post office sorting mail for the Christmas rush, to almost losing a finger working as a construction laborer, permanently losing some feeling in his injured fingertip.

He went on to work for several trucking and cartage companies, often quitting to help with the seeding or harvesting on the farm. This continued for a few seasons until he found work at Redwing Cartage where he met some new friends that would one day become very important to his future. He was invited by them to a house party where he noticed a young girl that really impressed him, the sister of one of his new friends. He introduced himself and asked for her number to which she replied, ‘it’s in the book’, but he was unable to find it later and so forgot about the encounter.

Jerry then decided to move to BC. He worked at a lumber mill for a while but came back to Winnipeg when the mill was threatening to strike. Back in Winnipeg he returned to Red Wing Cartage where he reunited with his old friends, including the brother of the young girl that had caught his eye four years previously. Jerry was invited to a New Year’s Eve party being thrown by this now young woman and when midnight arrived, she came to wish Jerry a Happy New Year and kissed him.

As Jerry told it, ‘She would not let go’ so they went out steady and Jerry and Merle finally married on May 2, 1959. They were married for 62 years until Merle’s passing on June 16, 2021.

Jerry was hired as a bus driver with Winnipeg Transit in 1959 and worked for six months before purchasing a dairy farm near Whitemouth, Manitoba. His first-born child, Gail was born on July 3, 1960. His oldest son, Gerald was born on December 5, 1961.

The dairy farm turned out to be too much work for this very young family and after two years they sold and moved back to Winnipeg where he tried his hand at being a landlord, buying two houses, living in one and renting out the other. A second son, Mark was born on March 9, 1964, during this time. Jerry was working at Winnipeg Transit when they saw an ad for Sunshine Corner, a mom-and-pop style store for sale in St Vital, Merle’s roots and old stomping grounds. They purchased and kept the store for three years before closing it and renovating the building as a house. During this time two more sons were born, Michael on July 8, 1966 and Paul on February 4, 1968. They lived in that house until Normand was born on November 11, 1969, when they decided they wouldn’t raise six kids in the city.

They approached Jerry’s parents to buy forty acres and moved out in 1970 to a mixed farm with livestock including cows, pigs, and chickens as well as large gardens, grain and hay. Literal tons of produce were grown and sold to Transit coworkers, various garden centers and people driving by our sign on Dawson Road. Jerry continued to work at Winnipeg Transit, as a bus driver for eleven years, then various other jobs including removing fare boxes, janitorial services, and finally to the maintenance shops where he settled in the blacksmith shop until his retirement in May of 1987.

He had always wanted to farm. On the day he retired from Winnipeg Transit, he was out singing a song while driving the tractor out to the field, happy that he was finally in his most cherished career. Working at the Transit was a necessity, a way to make a living, farming was a way of life. The farm got a little more mixed with the addition of strawberry plants, eventually leading to a ‘Pick-Your-Own’ strawberry farm and for almost twenty years, strawberry growing and picking was a central part of the farm they named Country Leisure Farms. In 2003 Jerry more or less retired from farming if you can call tending to half of an acre of garden being “retired”.

In the early 1980’s, Jerry and Merle had decided to subdivide a portion of the farm into lots for their children. A road was built and named Grossman Road. Four lots were created and there are still Grossman’s living on Grossman Road today. Jerry loved farming, but he loved his family more, always carrying photos of his wife and children with him in his wallet and more recently in a pocket-sized photo album that he would break out and show to anyone who would stop and speak with him.

He provided so much more than just necessities to his family. The above ground pool that he maintained with crystal clear water held many extended family and friends at one time or another. Ping pong and pool tables provided hours of fun, with Jerry instructing six kids in the fine art of bank shots and the perfect break. Horseshoe pits, croquet sets, sports paraphernalia, including hockey sticks and how to make a near Olympic sized hockey rinks helped to put the leisure into the name Country Leisure Farms.

Jerry was a hard worker and imparted that ethic to his children and their accomplishments at both school and in work environments filled him with pride, even if he didn’t always mention it. Jerry continued to work hard for his family, even as they began making lives of their own, helping his children to literally build their homes or snow blowing yards and working on vehicles and other items, with the garage at the farm often occupied by one adult child or another’s vehicle with Jerry helping and even sometimes holding the light.

Appreciation and pride for family extended to the next generations too, welcoming grandchildren and great-grandchildren over the years. These additions to the family in turn taught their grandpa a little about relaxing and enjoying life throughout the milestones in their growing young lives.

Jerry lived his life the way he farmed, working hard to grow his family in all seasons and all the kinds of weather that life throws at you. He relied a lot on his wife and his Lord for guidance. Jerry had a personal and somewhat private relationship with God, but it was nevertheless a foundation he was committed to and strove to strengthen with each passing year. His presence and guidance will be sorely missed by all that loved him and were loved by him.

Our family would like to extend sincere gratitude to the residents and staff of Residence Despins who helped dad in so many ways. Heartfelt thanks to the wonderful staff at St. Boniface Hospital for their diligent and compassionate care these last few weeks.

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