With much love, wonderful memories and sadness our family bids a fond farewell to Emiel Albert Dahms. Emiel died on Sunday, March 20 at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon surrounded by his family at the age of 87. He was born at home on the family farm on June 16, 1923 and resided on the farm for most of his life until July of 2007. In 2007 Emiel moved to Watrous and had spent the last two years at Jubilee Court. During his time at Jubilee Court Dad had made many new friends and really enjoyed his time residing there. Shuffleboard, cards and the special dinners were some of the highlights along with the care and companionship of the residents, staff and home care personnel. He had just recently moved to Manitou Lodge prior to his passing.
Dad met Mom in 1944 and once they started dating he walked seven miles to town and back every night to visit her. They were engaged on October 22, 1945 and were married one year later on October 22, 1946 at St. John’s cathedral in Saskatoon. Next to his wife and family, farming has had his heart and been his passion for his entire life. Other than farming Emiel had spent some time working in the gold mines and lumber camps of northwestern Ontario when he was 16 years old. During their early married years from 1946 through 1951 Emiel and Agnes spent one winter in Toronto and five in Calgary working during the winter months. They have many fond memories of the friendships they made during these years. In the late 50s and early 60s he was employed locally at Pilot Butte (gravel pit) in addition to farming full time. He also spent a number of summers working with government crop programs in the early 70s. Emiel sat on the school board for many years and was also actively involved with coaching peewee baseball and hockey. For a number of years in the 1990s up until the mid 2000s Dad was a councillor in the RM of Wreford which he enjoyed immensely. He will be fondly remembered as a man who had a great memory for local history and could tell you who lived on each and every farm throughout the countryside. Dad was also a great one to visit and was always happy to strike up a conversation with friends or complete strangers. Family was the most important part of his life and many happy times were had at the farm and at Etters’s, Vance’s, Huggins, Manitou and Waskesieu Lake. Wonderful and caring neighbours have made life a whole lot sweeter and memorable during the lifetime Dad, Mom and our family have spent on our farm.
Emiel will be sadly missed by his daughter Janet (Alan) Parnell, daughter Margaret (Michael) Schmit, and son Emiel (Florine) Dahms; his grandchildren Stacey (Jay) Antonio, Shannon (Isaac) Kendall, Jana (Ken) Siepman, Chris Parnell (Sarah), Ben Parnell (Shayla), Stephanie Schmit and Katie Parnell; his great-grandchildren Brett Schmit and Xander Siepman. He is also survived by his nephew Wayne (Daphne) Ash, his niece Bonnie Isaacson, his nephew Gary (Margaret) Isaacson, his nephew Peter (Eugenia) Powers and his cousins Mary Knoblauch, Camilla Smith, Florian Galbraith and Edwin (Olga) Dahms. He is also survived by many other cousins and dear friends.
Emiel was predeceased by his wife of 58 years Agnes; his father and mother Emiel and Maude Dahms; brother Jack (Madge) Hewitt, sisters Dorothy (Alonzo) Ash, Irene (Bill) Isaacson, Doris (Raymond) Isaacson and brother-in -aw Don (Vera) Powers; and many other relatives.
The family would like to thank all the wonderful nurses, home care workers in Imperial, Watrous and Nokomis, also Dr. Worbitz and his team and the sixth floor nursing staff at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.
Funeral services for Emiel Dahms were held at the Imperial Community Centre at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 24, 2011. Interment was at the Imperial Cemetery.
