Saturday, February 17, 2018
I couldn’t find the words that I wanted to say at the lunch.
Leo was like glue. He glued people and relationships together.
I probably saw Leo more times before my teens than I have since, but what a bunch of great things that man showed and told me. He and my dad as well as others were deeply connected with the Cow-Calf Association. My first memory of him was hauling the family car back to our farm for Dad when the engine blew coming home from a meeting. Leo taught me and my brother how to fish and he taught me how to weld. In the more recent past, he would tell me about different dozers and trucks and the good and bad of running them, and even how they would get them all unstuck out of the muskeg. I went to Klatt’s Farm auction and who did I see but Leo. He told me stories about coming to see his and stay with his mother’s family up the road and how he got to know the Klatts. One story made me buy a few steam engine parts from that sale. I was a great visit! It made my day. Last summer he came to our farm for my mom’s surprise birthday. Great to see him back here to visit and I got great compliments when he toured our new shop and smiled and said “yep this is good”. Leo could do anything and everything and he didn’t learn it by reading a book.
Leo had a big connection to our family, and for me, he was a special connection with my dad.
He told me after Christmas that he was “going to fight with both guns a blazing “. I am certain that we all would have liked to hear another story during a great visit.
My deepest condolences to Leo’s families.
