Lawrence was predeceased by his parents Cameron and Mary, siblings Alvin, Milton, Harold, Irene (Paris) Bulman, Elwood, Luella, Wray, Pearl (John) Bishop, Gordon (Florence), Greta (Jerry) Ballagh, Mary (Lloyd) Talbot and brothers in law Ron Thompson and Douglas Gibbens.
He is survived by his wife Orla, sons Larry (Kim) and family Robert, Nicholas, Sarah, Christopher, Jeffrey, Hannah and Lyle (Gaynette) and family Ashlyn (Andreus Delos Reyes) and Dylan. Lawrence is also survived by brother and sister in laws Donna Thompson, Harley (Myrna) Gibbens, Kenneth (Anne) Gibbens, Lansley (Jeanette) Gibbens, Francis Gibbens and many nieces and nephews.
Lawrence was born on the family farm and attended Tipperary School. He always told us how he rode 12,000 miles on his horse to get to school over the years. He completed his grade 10 and then left school to farm full time. One of the stories he told us was when he was 20 he went to Indian Head to get his first car and then he drove it all the way to Balcarres to get his Drivers License!
He loved to farm. To expand the family farm he purchased his first quarter of land in 1949 which is still known to us at the “south quarter”. After his dad passed away in 1950 he became close with his neighbor Luis Forester who became his mentor in his early farming days. He was always willing to help out his neighbors with any task! In 1990 he accepted the family farm heritage award for a homestead that has been in the family for over 100 years!
During his years of farming, he always had about 10 head of cattle. He told us he never made much on the cattle but it gave him something to do in the winter time. He felt he lived during a great era….he started farming with horses and progressed to large machinery with air conditioning and autosteer (not that he used the autosteer!)
Lawrence and Orla (Gibbens) were married on January 16, 1965…no blizzard but it was -30! They have 2 sons Larry and Lyle who worked together with Lawrence for many years on the farm. Lawrence and Orla enjoyed camping, dancing and visiting with neighbours and friends. Aside from farming Lawrence snow plowed roads and yards in the district, fixed telephone lines, picked saskatoons and played for the Tipperary Tigers softball team. He also enjoyed hunting, curling and playing cards. He left the farm in 1994 to move “over the hill” to Katepwa Beach to retire. During retirement he was always seen watching the grandkids sports events (football, dance and hockey). He always wanted to know how they were doing and how school was going. When going to the rink you could always find him in the same spot in the bleachers watching whatever hockey was on….Minor Hockey, Broncs it didn’t matter! He also enjoyed going to the senior fastball games.
After moving to Katepwa Beach Lawrence would ask Orla if the garden needed tending to….secretly he just wanted to go to the farm to see what Lyle was up to on the farm!
Although he did drive the combine until he was 90, his health prevented him from doing his daily coffee run and checking the farm over the last few years.
In 2019 he made his debut appearance on social media when Ashlyn posted a picture of him climbing into the combine for a ride with over 87,000 people seeing the photo!
Ashlyn remembers Lawrence loving his sweets! We gave him chocolates for Christmas and he always had mints in the jar beside his chair to share. We have included a few chocolates in his urn courtesy of Myrna Gibbens.
We will miss his daily check-ins at the farm and his enormous knowledge of historical events.
Many thanks for all our family, friends and neighbors for your thoughts, prayers and condolences.
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