Church and community members paid their respects Friday to longtime Crofton resident George Rempel.
Rempel died Oct. 11 at the age of 90. His celebration of life brought together a large gathering of people at the Calvary Baptist Church in Chemainus.
Tributes poured in for him on Facebook on the days leading up to the service.
Daughter Mary Skogland will always carry many memories of her dad.
“Clearing drives of snow, digging ditches, basements, septic fields,” she noted. “Always a story, always music, talking to everyone and anyone, down the road in the backhoe and up Bonsall’s hill to home. Peanut butter. Every sandwich with peanut butter. Like the chorus he wrote, ‘The Hallelujah Line’ - he’s gone home on that free pass to Heaven.”
June Barber noted Rempel was a member and a past president of the Crofton Seniors Society and “he will be sadly missed by all.”
“I have known the Rempel family since our family first moved to Crofton back in 1969,” noted Andy Friis. “Good friends with Terry growing up. Attended a few birthday parties at the Rempel home.
“Fast forward to 1993 when we purchased our little hobby farm just down the road from George, he happily came down with his backhoe tractor and helped shore up the old lean-to type shelter that we made into our first horse barn. His skill and ingenuity helped make that shaky structure into one that still stands today. He was a super guy with a great smile and a friendly wave to whoever he passed by and will be sadly missed.”
“When we had the Crofton Market way back when George would come down and play his harmonica, sell his figs and make us laugh,” Joen Belanger recalled. “George was a delight to be around, rest easy now.”
Donations to a favourite charity on George’s behalf were being encouraged by the family.