Dad's death was a sad and tragic event in our lives, but he left us with a heritage never to be forgotten, and many rich memories that will always be a part of my life.

He loved children and demonstrated his affection to us. When we were small, we would often sit on his knees after meals and enjoy a cuddle or a play fight. He was especially affectionate to Blondina as a baby and toddler, cuddling her and walking with her in his arms for many hours as though he was sad that she would be his youngest and last child. He referred to us as 'gifts' from God and thought of himself as blessed quoting Psalms 127: "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him…Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

He enjoyed having fun and would play outdoors with us when he had spare time or on the occasional Sunday afternoon. But he would never play card games or board games - card (except Rook cards) were representative of the devil, and board games such as monopoly served little purpose or took too long to complete.

Dad had a sense of humor, and he loved to tease, especially his nieces and nephews. When I was in elementary school, he let us all skip school one day to go into town to see a film on sheep ranching in Australia. There must have been eight of us in the blue 1949 Ford eagerly and contently waiting while Dad was in the store and post office looking after some errands.

At the same time, he tried to find out where the film was showing, only to be told that it wasn't on that day. Since it happened to be April 1st, he just came to the car and said this was a big April fool's joke on all of us. We had a good laugh thinking at least we had a day off school, and all this with our

parent's permission. To top it off, he then bought each of us a soft drink. What a day!

Whenever possible, he would support us in our activities. Almost every year, he would find the time to attend our track and field sports day, baseball games, Christmas concerts, and special presentations at school. Whenever parents were invited to school events, he would make every effort to be there - even when we were in high school.

He enjoyed suspense and surprise. Christmas was especially an exciting time. Dad would get caught up in the excitement as much as anyone. Traditionally, we would set out our dinner plates on the dining table on Christmas Eve. We believed in Santa, but Dad was the only real Santa.

He mad sure there was something fun in our Christmas plates - something we wished for - on Christmas morning rather than only something that was necessary. Gifts were recognized as special, thus we always got more than just "mittens' in our plates. At the end of November, both Mom and Dad would lock themselves in the "blue room" to place a major Christmas order and from then until Christmas morning there was an air of excitement and suspense.

He believed in us, and he expected us to work hard and do our best. We were rewarded for good grades with money - 5 cents for 100%, 4 cents for marks in the 90's, 3 cents for marks in the 80's, 2 cents for marks in the 70's and 1 cent for marks in the 60's. But we had to pay him 1 cent if our marks were in the 50's. If we failed a test, we had to have a good reason, be prepared to do some serious homework, and/or get the strap! Nevertheless, he expressed pride in our accomplishments whether at school or at church. Praise from him was greatly valued and always sincere!

Unlike some parents in the area, after a certain age, he gave us independence in making decisions. At one time, he questioned the content of some harlequin type "nurse" novels that somehow found their way into our house. Since he felt that these books might have questionable content, he felt he should read them. He became rather absorbed in one of the books,

sitting in his chair all day reading it from beginning to end. In the end, he decided the content was rather innocuous and did not fall under "banned reading material". Rather, he felt we could make up our own minds on what was good reading and what was not good reading.

The only reading I remember being banned was the so-called "Christian novel", in which a Christian girl meets a non-Christian boy or vice versa; they fall in love, have a stormy romance but always before the end of the book, the non-Christian becomes a Christian and they get married and live happily ever after.

Dad felt this type of story was too unrealistic and went against some of his cherished Christian values regarding dating non-believers. He felt very strongly that believers should not date non-believers. Religious denomination, however, was seldom if ever mentioned as important. Thus these books were banned from my reading until age fourteen, at which time he felt should be mature enough to differentiate between fictional accounts of life and reality itself.

Another time when I was in high school, we had the opportunity to attend a dramatization of Macbeth. Since Dad thought it was a movie version and because movies were generally not an acceptable form of entertainment, he was reluctant to give us permission to attend. At that time, he said we were old enough to decide for ourselves whether it was right or wrong for us to attend. I have always respected him for giving us that independence in making choices.

Although he did not always agree with what we did, nor did he always expect us to follow his standards, - he always stood by his own principles. He strongly disagreed with drinking a toast to anyone, as this to him was synonymous with "worldliness" and honoring people rather than God. As a toast to the grads was a part of the banquet, much to my disappointment, he did not attend the banquet, but he was pleased to attend the formal graduation ceremonies immediately after the banquet. None the less, in this instance, he again allowed us the freedom to choose what we thought

was acceptable behavior and what was not. We had to decide for ourselves whether to go to the banquet or not. Music was very important to Dad and many times a source of enjoyment and entertainment. I remember evenings singing with him as he taught me to play the autoharp. He would take hymns from the hymnbook and identify chords with numbers so that we could learn to play and sing with the autoharp.

He also enjoyed gathering people around the piano to sing for hours, just for fun or for practices. He even organized a small orchestra at church for anyone who enjoyed "jamming" with guitars, fiddles, mandolins, piano, autoharp and voice. Playing and singing as part of this orchestra was a great source of entertainment on a Wednesday or Friday night practice in the winter time.

I also remember taking this "show on the road" to some nearby village churches. Family singing was especially important to him. Thus he encouraged us to sing melodies as well as parts by learning to read notes. As a result of his efforts, we were invited to sing in some our local church and neighboring churches. I especially remember going to sing in the Battleford Mental Hospital at the age of twelve before a large audience of resident patients.

He encouraged us to learn to read music by notes. He felt this was a more important skill than simply going to the piano and making up tunes or playing familiar tunes by ear.

Music in our house was usually of high quality. We were allowed to listen mostly to classical music, opera and choral music. My father abhorred the twangs and slurs of country and western music. He would change radio stations whenever they started playing this type of music. It didn't matter whether if it was religious or secular programming. Rock 'n Roll was also generally banned. In fact, he would tell us any music that made one move below the hips was poor quality. Thus it was quite surprising when he came home from town one afternoon and asked if we had ever heard of this Elvis Presley that everyone seemed to raving about. He turned the

radio on and searched stations until he heard this supposedly revolutionary musician on the air. He later remarked that Elvis had, in fact, a surprisingly good voice. However, we still grew up listening mostly to opera, oratorio and choral music - mostly the classics.

Because he was a doer rather than a talker, he never suggested someone else should do something that he wasn't willing to do himself, except for preaching at church. This he freely admitted wasn't his gift. But he was quite willing to participate in teaching Sunday school classes and leading the children's choir. However, he never felt that he was irreplaceable. In fact, he suggested that once you felt no one else could fulfill your duties, it was definitely time to resign from the position. Good advice!

His actions were largely responsible for getting electricity to our rural area. Instead of waiting for others to act or simply sitting around wishing we had modern conveniences such as electricity or running water, he put on his cross country skis and skied the area around Glenbush and Rabbit Lake in the cold of winter to get people signed up to commit themselves for paying for the power line to be brought to our area. He was gone for days, coming home only on weekends. People in the area were very neighborly in offering food and shelter to him. Later in 1955, they were certainly appreciative of his efforts when finally the lights went on and we became "modern".

He was always resourceful. No task seemed impossible. He enjoyed learning and was very good in understanding machines and electricity. He would repair farm implements, his own as well as his neighbors. People would come to our place from miles away to see if he could work on some new or old farm implement. He always had time for these people. During the spring and harvest seasons as community members would come to him to get him to repair their equipment, he would get them to drive his tractor or combine while he went to repair their machinery.

He also learned new things quickly. Dad enjoyed working with electricity and helped the electricians wire our house.

Learning from them, he then wired other buildings on the farm and in the area. At one time he said that if he were not in farming, he would have been interested in becoming an electrician. He also installed plumbing in our house. Our farm was one of the first to have running water. Dad installed a hot water tank connecting it to the wood stove so that we had hot water whenever the wood stove was lit. Later he also installed similar systems in some of his friends' homes.

For several summers before we had modern refrigeration he took on the role of community butcher for the beef ring so we could have fresh meat in the warm seasons. With the help of Mom, he slaughtered, cut and wrapped local beef once a week in the summer season to be delivered to the participants of the beef ring. Every winter with the help of several couples, he would butcher at least three sows for our family's consumption. This included, naturally, smoking smoked sausages and full hams, rendering lard in a large cauldron outdoors and making it liverwurst. He made the best head cheese and pickled pigs' feet, ears and snout! Little was wasted.

One winter he purchased a shoemaker's sewing machine at a local auction and from thereon in, he repaired all our shoes. He even tried his hand at tanning an animal pelt. When Sport, our family dog died, he thought a dog rug would be useful and look very good on the cold living room floor. The smell of the cleaning and tanning process was absolutely unbelievable, but rug stayed with us for many years, serving as a play rug, an area rug and as a talking piece and reminder of a good dog. It was the most durable rug we ever had!

He often consulted Mom in making decisions as she seemed to be the one who kept the accounts in order. However, there were a few times when he made decisions alone and seemingly on the spur of the moment. For instance, he came home one late afternoon driving a brand new blue 1949 Ford! I seem to remember my mother was almost speechless, wondering about the wisdom of this purchase.

Another time, I remember one wintry night he came home fairly late from a farm auction. He was much later than expected and Mom was rather anxious at his late arrival. When he finally arrived with the bobsled loaded with household items, two things especially added excitement to his late arrival - our first living room chesterfield and our first RADIO!

He connected the radio to a car battery, and thus we had access to another world. The chesterfield was rather tattered and Mom wondered why he had bought it. He bought it because it was inexpensive and he had the time and the ability to reupholster it - again something he had never done. He did a great job with the remake. Relatives were so impressed with this renewed chesterfield and the talent he showed that he had to reupholster some for them.

Marriage was very important to him. Marriage was an equal partnership. Decisions were usually discussed and made together with Mom. Although I am sure they had their arguments, they were seldom heated and rarely in front of us as children.

Although he didn't talk about his personal faith a great deal, Bible reading and family prayers were very important to him. Thus we always began breakfast with Bible reading and with the exception of seeding and harvesting time, we also ended the day with Bible reading and prayer. The church was very important to him and we went regularly.

All in all, I remember my father for his love of children, his sensitivity and resourcefulness. I regret that he was never able to enjoy being a grandfather to our children. As I grew older, I sense more and more the wisdom and patience he showed in raising us.

Vi was born on April 13, 1943. She was the 4th daughter born to the Wiens family. Vi and her husband, John Parris are the parents of two sons, Justin and Jonathan, residing in Calgary, Alberta, where they made their living in the teaching profession. Today Vi is a retired teaching instructor and spends her time indulging in her hobbies which include skiing.

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