John Gerbrandt

Obituary

John Gerbrandt, age 80, of Grunthal, Manitoba passed away and went to be with his Lord on December 22, 2017 at the Bethesda Hospital in Steinbach, Manitoba.

John is survived by his wife of 57 years, Elma Gerbrandt (Friesen) and his sons’ families: Greg & Naomi Gerbrandt with children Jennifer & Tim Froese, Adam & Sarah Gerbrandt, Jessica & Nathaniel Harder; Shannon Gerbrandt (wife to Murray) and son Reid; Cam & Myra Gerbrandt with children Connor, Logan and Emmett; and great grandchildren Jacob, Henry, Isaac, Ruth, Ezra, and Ben.

John was predeceased by his parents, John & Helena Gerbrandt, his brother Peter, his grandson Michael and his son Murray.

How do you summarize a life in a few paragraphs with a number of well chosen descriptors and then really capture the essence of who a person was? Obviously, this task is impossible, but I will try to give you a glimpse of who John was.

With a tanned, weathered face and his signature bushy mustache, John was once referred to as “the real Marlboro man”. Quiet, steady, dependable. That makes him sound a lot like a farm tractor, and there were similarities, but he was much more.

John was born in Altona, Manitoba on August 26, 1937, where his family lived for three years and then moved to the Grunthal area. By age 10, John and his siblings were no longer with their family due to family complications and the children were all living in different foster homes. These were difficult years for a growing boy and helped produce a fairly stoic disposition.

By age 16, John was living back with his father. John was actually fired from one of his first jobs at this age as he thought he knew better than the boss how to get frozen snow and ice out of the loader bucket and had decided dropping it from 20 feet in the air onto a frozen rock was a great idea. Even then, John showed his independent streak and his penchant for going his own way.

In 1958, John met Elma Friesen and they began their courtship and were married on October 1, 1960. Their son Greg arrived in 1961, their son Murray in 1963 and their son Cameron in 1969. During most of these early years, the family was living in Edmonton and John worked various construction jobs before studying carpentry at Alberta’s NAIT college. The carpentry and construction jobs that followed frequently led John out of town for work, but that did not hinder the frequent family camping trips in the tiny travel trailer.

In 1975, the family moved back to Grunthal, Manitoba to begin life as chicken farmers, while still pursuing construction for some extra income. John and Elma kept the boys busy on the farm and made sure they all learned the value of hard work and the do-it-yourself attitude. The camping trips stopped, but the frequent trips to the huge metropolis of Grand Forks began, as long as there were no chickens in the barn.

In the early 1980s, John decided that chicken farming and construction were not enough, so he bought a small hog farm south of Grunthal and began to be a triple occupation provider. Providing for his family and being sure the family was together proved to be a driving force in John’s life, something that he lived out right into his last days.

Not satisfied with a small hog farm, John, along with his oldest son Greg, began to develop the farm into what became one of Manitoba’s largest hog operations at the time. His shrewd business sense led John to develop his farm just as Manitoba’s hog industry was beginning to grow and he sought to be on the leading edge of that coming wave.

During the 80s and 90s, John and Elma became grandparents and their grandchildren have always been a source of great joy and pride. Spoiling the grandchildren became their right and John and Elma never gave up that opportunity.

John and Elma began to travel more in the late 80s, first going to Hawaii and then to Mexico. Mexico soon became an every-year vacation as their boys were getting older and could manage the farms in the absence of mom and dad. Eventually, southern Texas replaced Mexico as the destination of choice and John and Elma would bring their RV to Magic Valley Park in Weslaco, Texas. Here they made many friends and would spend more and more time each year. Eventually, John and Elma bought a home in the park so they could have a more permanent place and leave the RV at home for summer camping. This travelling to Texas in the winter and RVing in the summer continued right up until 2017.

John and Elma retired from farming beginning in 2001 with the sale of their hog farm and then moved off the family chicken farm in 2003. This allowed them more time for puttering around at their new home in Grunthal, time for camping and Texas, and best of all, time for their children, grandchildren and the arrival of their great-grandchildren.

The death of his son, Murray, in a car accident in 1996 was a difficult time for the entire family. John consistently displayed the same quiet strength that he had his entire life.

Being the strong, silent type that he was, taking what are now basic safety precautions did not even enter the picture for John during his working career. Wearing ear protection meant you could not hear the saw properly, wearing a dust mask made your glasses fog up. Wearing eye protection just took extra time. A few times John came home sporting an eye patch because of wood or metal in his eye. While uncomfortable for John, Cameron was always impressed as it made his dad look even tougher and look like a pirate to boot.

However, the lack of safety precautions and 50+ years of smoking took their toll on his hearing and his lungs; symptoms of which began to show themselves in the early 2000s. Numerous doctor’s appointments and hospital stays over the years revealed badly damaged lungs which in turn caused harm to his heart. Through it all, John maintained his positive disposition and quiet determination. He rarely complained, even though his breath became shorter and shorter. In the summer of 2015, John was hospitalized and it seemed his life was at an end. However, thanks to excellent medical care and a fierce determination to live on, John made it out of the hospital and made a decent recovery.

Lung issues and lack of breath continued to dog him and became quite frustrating as he began not to be able to complete tasks that once were simple for him. For a man who spent his life working hard, taking it easy was not really all that easy.

In late November 2017, John had another lung infection that landed him back in the hospital. He battled back and came home to be with his family for their Christmas gathering on December 10th. All had an excellent time of eating, sharing and singing together and John got to visit with every member of his large family. By December 13th he was back in the hospital in St. Pierre and fighting for almost every breath. On December 22 at 4:10 am, John finally gave up his fight for breath and surrendered into the arms of Christ. Some of his last words were to ask to pray for God’s will in his life and in the lives of his family as well as to ask God to give strength, peace and comfort to his family and caregivers. To the end, John continued to show the care and devotion to his family that he had shown all his life.

The funeral service will be held on Friday, December 29th, 2017 at 11:00 am at Birchwood Funeral Chapel in Steinbach followed by a light lunch reception and then the interment at the Grunthal Cemetery in Grunthal, Manitoba.

If friends so desire, donations may be made in memory of John Gerbrandt to Steinbach Community Outreach (355 Loewen Blvd, Steinbach, MB, R5G 0L1), an organization which gives aid and community support to the poor and homeless in and around the Steinbach area.

Special thanks to relatives, friends, and medical staff who have been and continue to be a strong support.

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