André Jean Joseph St. Pierre

1925 ~ 2016

André Jean Joseph St. Pierre peacefully passed on May 17^th, 2016 where he resided at Sunnywood Personal Care Home in Pine Falls at 90 years of age.

André lived his life in the St. Georges, Powerview-Pine Falls area working at various occupations such as owning a garage, owning a bakery and driving a school bus while raising his family.

He left behind his beloved partner of 65+ years Aurea (Bremner); his daughters Odile Alarie (Maurice), Evelyn St. Pierre-Isaak (Walter), Lucille Vincent (Omer, deceased), Colette Carlson (Roy), Michelle Critch (Paul, deceased), and Louise Boyer (Tim); 15 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren; his sister Sister Odile St. Pierre, and his sister-in-law Cecile Touzin-St. Pierre.

André was predeceased by his parents Arthur and Germaine (Cosson) and his brother Louis; his sons-in-law Omer Vincent and Paul Critch.

A service will be held at Notre Dame du Laus Roman Catholic Church in Powerview on Monday, May 23rd at 2:00 p.m. with luncheon to follow.

The family would like to express their appreciation and heartfelt thanks to the staff at Sunnywood Personal Care Home for the compassionate care given to our dad over the past two and a half years.  A special thank you to Father James Gray for his many visits to our father while he was in both the hospital and Sunnywood.  Dad appreciated it!

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Sunnywood Personal Care Home, Box 2000, Pine Falls MB  R0E 1M0.

www.soberingfuneralchapel.com

 Eulogy:  André Jean Joseph St. Pierre was born November 5^th, 1925 in St. Georges, Manitoba.  In 1950 he married his life-long partner of 65+ years Aurea (Bremner).  Together they raised a family of 6 girls, who could not have asked for a better father.  André never left the area where he was born.  Growing up he helped his father and mother with whatever needed doing around the family property, especially while his father was away teaching school.  André was a man who fit the description of “Jack of all trades”.  He worked for a little while at the Pine Falls paper mill, but soon realized he did not like shift work and started a garage business.  He worked at this successfully till the garage burned.  Having a family and his father living with him, André worked at a number of different jobs.  He drove a logging truck, supervised the building of homes on the Fort Alexander Reserve and he worked at his cousin Alain Pereux’s store.  While working there, he bought the bakery in Powerview.  After 8 years of baking, he sold the bakery and drove school bus for 10 years.  His biggest joy was driving the school bus to Birds Hill Park to go to see Pope John Paul II, and on an everyday note, just going to McDonalds with the school kids.  He retired mostly because he had a lot of problems with his eyes.

André was a man who simply loved having people around him.  As a matter of fact he appreciated and enjoyed having his father Arthur live with us for 26 years.  He always wanted his family gathered, any reason for a get together was a good reason.  He was a cowboy at heart, wearing his cowboy hat, bolo tie and cowboy boots, he was dressed for whatever occasion.  Playing guitar and singing were his joy and he would certainly start a little sing-song during these gatherings encouraging anyone to join along.  Many evenings were spent playing cards with friends and family.  He was the luckiest one, always having that extra trump, or highest score.  His family and those who knew him really well also knew that André gave a lot of nicknames to many.  He would think these up and before we knew it the names often stuck to that person.  He especially gave his grandchildren these nicknames and always called them by these names until he was unable to.  A few of André’s favourite sayings were “first one today”, “with this hand”, or “cayang, cayang”, when there was some sort of disagreement or just the girls talking, and “what a good deal”, that was mostly when buying a new vehicle.  Just to recall a few…

During his life André was quite courageous.  In his younger days he saved a family from sure death as he saw an oncoming vehicle heading for another.  He immediately put the transport truck he was driving in the path of the vehicle which had crossed the line and saved the entire family.  Another time he saved two people from drowning. A little later he saved a drowning young man from the area.  He was put in the path of these people in their predicaments, and he was able to help.

In his twilight years, André was often found caring for his garden.  His garden was always so plentiful that many enjoyed the fruits of his labour.  Another huge pastime of his was fishing.  He would spend hours alone or with family members and friends on the river fishing for pickerel.  Fishing was peaceful and relaxing, with an amazing view, and the catch was always enjoyed.  There is a saying that says “a person is comfortable in their skin”, and André was certainly this.  He enjoyed life and lived it as well as he could and taught us all to live life and be the best we could be.  Till we meet again André … we will miss you.

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