Obituary of Alvin Myers

It is with deep sadness that the family of Alvin Myers announce his passing.

Alvin is pre-deceased by his father Ronald, his mother Isabel, his son-in-law Bill, and his sisters-in-law Kay, Mary Ann, Debbie and brothers-in-law James and Joe.  He is also pre-deceased by several aunts, uncles, and cousins from the Myers and Paul families.  

He is survived by his loving wife Patricia, his "girls" and their families, daughters Robin Myers-Keller (Oliver), Gina Lamont (Nelson), Melissa Peacock, Erin Marshall (Chris) and his grand daughters Shanelle (Garrett), Brittany (Andy), Courtney (Jeremy) and Paige (Sean) and great grandchildren Nate, Prairie and Sage and his fur baby girl Abby.

The family would like to thank Dr. A. Rizk for his long term care of Alvin, and Dr. T. Hiebert, Dr. A. Huot, Dr. A. Abbaszadeh and the nurses and health care aides at the St. Boniface Hospital Palliative Care Unit for their care of Alvin.  The family would also like to thank all those who called, emailed, or visited Alvin while he was in hospital - he was grateful he had the chance to say goodbye to so many.   The family would also like to thank their employers and colleagues/clients for their support while we cared for him.   

Cremation has taken place and at Alvin's request there will be no service.  In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Winnipeg Humane Society.   

Alvin was born on July 13, 1945 to Ronald and Isabel in Nanaimo BC.  He was an only child but was thankful to have lots of cousins when he was growing up. It was clear when he told stories of his childhood, of the love he had for the Myers and Paul aunts and uncles and cousins.   We would laugh at his stories of adventures, misadventures and good times.

His dad was a pastor so he moved around Canada a lot eventually ending up in Winnipeg Manitoba.

From an early age Alvin loved to tinker.  His mom wanted him to become a doctor as he was incredibly intelligent however his passion for pulling something apart and fixing it won.  He was an extremely skilled mechanic with the ability to fix anything as his friends pointed out.  He had more Snap-On tools then the Snap-On Tool company.   

Alvin met the love of his life Pat on a blind date in Minot, North Dakota.  He was over 6 feet tall and she was 4 feet 11 and 3/4 inches (to be exact).  Alvin and Pat married and 11 months later welcomed their first daughter Robin into the world, and almost every 2 years a new daughter was born, Gina, Melissa then Erin.

Pat's family loved Alvin.  When he visited the farm there was plenty of card games and he helped work in the fields and on the cars and farm machinery which he loved.  His many sisters in law and brothers in law treated him like family and he loved the annual family reunions.

Alvin made many friends throughout his life, whether they were friends through work or play.  If you were a friend of his you were a friend for life.   He worked most of his career with Kryger's Garage before taking on a new and interesting challenge with Accurate Dorwin Windows and he made so many good friends working at Accurate.  He was a proud member of the Transcona Jaycees and was Treasurer for a period of time.  He and Pat were also members of a bowling league for over 20 years.  He was like a second dad to so many of his daughter's friends and neighbors. 

Being a dad to four girls was not easy but he made sure his girls had the best childhoods.  Every Saturday he would take the girls downtown to the dance studio where he would park and sleep in the car while he waited hours for the girls to finish their classes.  He would also drive them to swim classes, skating and girl guides meetings.  He was so happy when each of his daughters got their drivers licenses as it finally gave him some time to himself.  His daughters never had to worry about their cars as they had a master mechanic in the family.  He would ask them to describe what was wrong with the cars and they would (very poorly) describe what the sound was like and he would be able to tell what was wrong.  It saved so much money on car repairs because Dad would maintain the cars.

Alvin loved to drive and show his family the world.  At first it was in his convertible where two of the girls would sleep in the footwell behind mom and dad and two would sleep on the back seat while he drove all night to get to our destination.  As the girls started to outgrow the footwell and back seat the family upgraded to a trailer and finally he bought and converted a big green school bus to easily fit the family of six.  There were so many trips around Canada and the United States visiting family, seeing the sights, and ski trips in the winter. 

He truly was a humble man and full of knowledge.  He was always learning and sharing his wisdom and had the memory of a steel trap. He would never look at instructions, but could still put anything together or fix anything.   He never needed to measure a second time, he was so precise.  The son-in-laws would tease him about all his tools and reusing his nails, and the disorderly shape of his garage but he knew where everything was.  It never failed if something broke he had the part or could make the part to fix it.  Gina recalls he was always up for any new activity, from picture framing to redoing furniture, she loved learning from him.

Christmas time was an event that he enjoyed with family.   The table was full of food and booze and there were lots of laughs and games played.   Every Christmas Eve would be spent closing down a bar in Transcona.   

Although he loved his girls he was happy when they got married as it added some men to the family.   Oliver remembers going to the Winnipeg Bombers football game with Alvin and sitting in the student section - he would fit right in even though he was the oldest student.

Shanelle arrived in 93 and Papa became her father figure. Bill arrived to take that task but it was delivered back to Papa with such grace when Bill passed. He really was a father figure to whomever needed one. He enjoyed the adventures of Melissa and Jan, and when Jan would visit he enjoyed the A1 style cuisine.

Alvin was extremely proud of building their cabin at Bird River from the concrete up.  He put his heart and soul into making it their retirement home and the fabulous cabin it is today.  Alvin loved to fish with his girls - his nickname was Captain Al - although he spent more time getting the minnows on the hooks, untangling weeds and pulling in the odd fish that was caught then he did actually putting his own line into the water and fishing.  He loved to teach his grandchildren to fish, to drive the quad and absolutely loved hosting them at the cabin.  His granddaughter Shanelle remembers going to the lake with Papa, being bathed in the little pink tub and bundling up in her snowsuit to go ice fishing with him.  Nelson remembers the many trike rides at the lake with Alvin, crossing questionable beaver dams and loving every minute.  Erin and Chris remember many wonderful New Year's Eve's spent out at the trailer on Bird River where Dad was so happy to see us.  Snowmobiling while he kept the trailer warm on the coldest of nights.  He was less than happy when the snowmobile returned one passenger short after an after dark ride in minus 40 weather but we found the passenger and it sure did make for a funny story for years later.  His granddaughter Courtney remembers going out at night to pick night crawlers for fishing with her Papa.   His granddaughter Paige recalls when she and Sean took papa's quad out and it stalled.  Papa had such an easy going nature and of course, he laughed about the broken quad, knowing he could fix it no matter what the issue was, and told them that's what the quad was for.  

Alvin and Pat spent many retirement years happily fishing while also travelling extensively.  This included cruising from Vancouver to Hawaii, Alaska coast, Mediterranean and the retirement cruise of Hawaii to Tahiti crossing the international date line, New Zealand, and ending in Australia where on the way home they decided to "rest" in Las Vegas before returning home.    With a new truck and camper, they drove many miles seeing the East Coast of Canada and the United States, as well as snowbirds in Texas and Arizona.  He was lucky enough to spend a month visiting Gina and Nelson in Kelowna BC last year.  Robin remembers he never traveled without his black leather bum bag being full.   

He truly enjoyed watching NFL football, chocolate, loved gambling and enjoyed going to Las Vegas and other casinos, especially with Melissa.  He also loved doing puzzles and played Boom Beach, Hay Day and Clash of Clans and was known as "Big Al". In recent years it was a great joy seeing his great-granddaughters cuddling into his famous Buddha belly.  He truly was a gentle giant.

He was an animal lover and had many dogs throughout his life. His last dog he called his "baby girl" and Abby gave him special comfort in his last years.

He was the kindest, most gentle heart and soul and will be missed so much by family and friends.