Obituary of Ralph Kenneth Alberts

Ralph Alberts loved living. He loved it for 93-and-almost-three-quarter years (because three-quarters matters when you’re 93). 

He loved it as a boy, living and working on the family farm with nine siblings and not a lot of room. He loved it as an adult, moving from town to town as a teacher, delighting his family on every car ride with his voice — oh, how he loved to sing. He loved it as an old fart, the old fart (a nickname he relished), lounging in his living room, watching the Blue Jays or CNN or, of course, curling. Or whatever his love, his sweetie-pie, his wife Venita wanted to watch.

About that Venita.

She fell in love with Ralph because he was a good Catholic young man, going to church all the time, even by himself. The two would marry and stay married for 67-and-three-quarters years. What a pair they made: Ralph pulling every pickerel and pike from Tobin Lake, Venita frying them up just the way he liked it. They had four doting children along the way: Laura, Karen, Tom and Elaine. Who was Ralph’s favourite? Depends which one you ask. Laughs aside, each one was.

From the children came grandchildren, 11 of them. Ralph basked in bouncing each one of them on his knee, holding their little fingers and singing The Cow Kicked Nelly, over and over again. And just as he did with his own children, boy did he love to make his grandchildren squirm. He would slide his wedding ring onto the tip of one of his three stubby fingers (lost in an accident on the farm when he was five years old, if you can imagine the horror), and pretend to dig his finger into his eye. Boy, did he get a kick out of that.

When he wasn’t laughing, he was usually smiling. Smiling as he played cribbage with his children and grandchildren, and often won. Smiling as he played video poker at the casinos in Regina and Las Vegas, and often lost. Smiling in his later years when his children or grandchildren or his foot nurse who called him Sweetie popped by for a visit. Ralph loved his visitors.

Discontent was generally reserved for the real hard stuff in life: The suffering or loss of a loved one (in 93-and-almost-three-quarter years, you see a lot of that); a sad story on the news; the nights in hospital when he was forced to be apart from his Venita. He was rarely one to complain, but, “Why can’t I just be at home with my wife?” 

Even as his memory began to fade, still, Ralph smiled. It’s no wonder, really. In his mind, he was increasingly living in a time when he still had brown hair and his next curling game was just around the corner and everything was a big-old-time!— often blissfully unaware of his latest fall, his latest bout of the flu or the fact that his arm had already been poked a few times. Indeed, while he grinned at being called “the old fart,” he often didn’t realize that he really was a really old fart.

Ninety-three-and-almost-three-quarter years. How lucky we are to have had him that long. The man with so many lives, so many brushes with death and so many people who were always so scared that this time was the last time. He fought hard, he really did. Because Ralph Alberts loved to live.

“Oh, happy day,” he sang in his final days, flashing his hallmark grin to those standing around his hospital bed. “Oh, happy day.”

Ralph died peacefully on September 11, 2019, joining his grandson Kristian; parents Frank & Florence; his siblings Alvin (Marjorie), Mildred (Horace), Bernard (Ruby), Margaret (Doug), Edward, Eldridge (Marjorie), Rita (Shirley) & Rueben; brothers-in-law Dearnest, Mervin (Lucille) & Kenneth; and sisters-in-law Etta (Lloyd) & Yvonne (Norm).

He was deeply loved and will be greatly missed by his wife of nearly 68 years, Venita; four children, Laura Walton (Peter), Karen Cherry (Mark), Tom & Elaine Gardiner (Blayne); grandchildren Lisa, Sarah, Chelsea, Tamara, Grayham, Josh, Chad, Melissa, Kyle & Lana; 15 great-grandchildren; brother Everett (Abigail); sisters-in-law, Mavis, Bernice (Jack), Evelyn (George), Cecelia, and Ileen; and brother-in-law Tom (Annette); and his many nieces and nephews, relatives and friends.

Prayers will be held at Speers Funeral Chapel, 2136 College Avenue, Regina, SK, on Friday, September 13, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.. Funeral Mass will be held at Christ the King R.C.Church, 3239 Garnet Street, Regina, Sk, on Saturday, September 14, 2019 at 10:30 a.m.