An obituary

This from the Interior News from Smithers, B.C., May 29, 1973:

Services for late Robert Saffel

It was a sad and disbelieving group that gathered with Father Keane in St. Joseph’s Church for the funeral services of the late Robert Allen Saffel on the morning of Thursday, May 3^rd.

Saffel was killed instantly in an accident which occurred early on April 29 during the course of his duties as a timber faller.

He was 34 years old.

Among the mourners were his wife Isabelle Philippart, and his two young sons, Alain, four, and Christian Patrick, two.

He is also survived by his parents Kenneth and Bessie Drey, his sisters Dianah Drey and Mary Hann, and his brothers, Gerald, David and Steven Saffel, all of Smithers, and W. Dean of Spokane, Washington.

Assisting as pallbearers at the interment, which was by the DeFrane Funeral Home, were Gerard Auger, Dale Hann, Guy Albert, and brothers Gerald, David and Steven Saffel.

Born in Colville, Washington, Saffel first came to the Bulkley Valley in 1967, but served in the U.S. Navy for 4½ years, obtained an honorable discharge, and then earned a B.A. degree in Education at Eastern Washington State College before returning to the area to log.

There, in 188 words, was an event that has affected my entire life.

I was very young when it happened, but I have memories of that time that will be seared into my mind forever. I can close my eyes and it’s like it just happened. I can remember jumping up and down on my bed screaming and screaming. I remember being with my mom and my brother in the funeral home looking at my dad as he lay in his casket. Surprisingly, I don’t remember the funeral at all.

What struck me when I read this was that he was only 34 when it happened. I’m 38 now. It happened 34 years ago. How different would my life have been had he not died? I can’t imagine. It’s something I obviously would change if I could, but then, my life now would be radically different. Many of the people in my life now would not be with me, and that I wouldn’t change. And life goes on.

I knew he had finished his education degree, and I guess he was having difficulty finding work as a teacher at the time. This is why he was logging at the time. I never worked in the logging industry for this reason. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me. I have known a couple people who were working in fields that weren’t their main endeavour and had this happen to them.

You often aren’t left with many memories from age four, and I am the same way. I don’t have many memories of my dad, and that is difficult for me at times. Often I think of people who have passed away and I feel like it’s a way of honouring them. It’s a shame that two of my strongest memories of him relate to his death.

One of the funny memories I have of him involves him saving me from a very large malamute dog we had named Muff. Muff and I were playing outside. I had to have been three at the time. I had a winter coat with a hood on, and Muff grabbed me by the hood and started swinging me around by the hood. Can’t fault Muff (who must have weighed four times as much as me) he was just imitating the airplane game, except you don’t use the hood! So, my dad, obviously alerted my screams of terror, ran out and saved me. I still like dogs though.

I also remember playing Frisbee with some of the neighbourhood kids one time, and was struck in the nose by the Frisbee. Of course my nose started gushing, and once again, he came out and helped staunch the bleeding.

The old pink house we used to live in was a funny one. The wall in the hallway had been cut off about a foot above the floor. I remember coming out of my room all the time and crawling through that gap. Once there was a party at the house and I recall Ken, my granddad, playing the guitar and singing. That wasn’t uncommon. He used to play the mandolin too.