John Palson from Redditt here. On February 16, 2024, I finally got called to Valhalla. I was 83 years young and worked hard my whole life. I was born on the family farm in Arnes, Manitoba, on December 31, 1940, and had loving parents and siblings, it was a great childhood.
I was smart in school. The teacher at my one room school house thought I should further my education and become a teacher. As one of 10 kids, that wasn’t a reality back in the 50’s, so instead, I followed my big brothers Fred and Gunnar up to Great Slave Lake at the ripe old age of 14. We commercial fished in the winters and worked construction in the summers and in 1967, I again followed my big brother Fred to Ontario and started working for Devlin Timber. That’s how I met the love of my life, Kathy McMahon. I wooed Kathy for a few months until her mother begged me to marry her and take her away. We wed in August of ’67 and had our first daughter, Teri, in 1968. We bought a little house in Keewatin and then welcomed Patti in 1971 and Jodi in 1975. Those were happy times.
In 1979, I decided I wanted to be my own boss, so I moved my girls to Redditt and bought the Hideaway. For the next 40 years, we raised our girls, made a lot of great friends, took a lot of fish and bears, and the odd moose too! I loved being an outfitter all those years, but my favourite job, was being an Afi.
The things I’ll miss most from this life will be fishing with family and friends on the English River, entertaining at our home on Armstrong Lake, beating everyone at cards and spending time with Kathy, my girls and my grandkids.
I’m on may way now to reunite with my parents, Gunnar and Anna, my siblings Fred, Dora, Lillian, Gunnar, Gay, Joy, Victor, Vincent and Wally. And also, my mother in law Doris McMahon, my brothers in law Raymond Smith, Fred Makara, Norman Johnson and Larry McMahon as well as my sister in law Lorraine Palson. It’s going to be one hell of a reunion!
I am leaving behind and will miss greatly, my love of 56 years, Kathy, our daughters Teri (Lorne), Patti (Chris) and Jodi (Murray) our grandchildren Janine, Tanner and Lexie Alcock, Samantha and Jonny (little Sigurjon) Boyechko and Teresa (Jason), Ryan (Janna), Madelynn and Anna Hall and great grandchildren Rowin, Libby (smiley) and Lucy (crazy hair) also, my loving sister Fay (Richard Hjorleifson), brothers in law Dave McMahon (Rose) and Orville Pickering, sisters in law Sandy Anderson, Donna Palson, Francine Albertson (Doug), Donna McMahon and Sharon MacKinnon ( Shayne). I’m also leaving behind a whole lot of nieces and nephews, and many great friends as well.
I’ve spent the last few months at Pinecrest Home for the Aged in Kenora and I’d like to thank Mike Limerick and all of the wonderful staff there for the amazing care and compassion; they treated me like family. The nursing team on the 2nd floor at the hospital were pretty great too.
In lieu of flowers, a donation to the Activation department at Pinecrest would be appreciated.
My final arrangements are being handled by Brown Funeral Home & Cremation Centre in Kenora and my service will be held there on Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 11:00am. Hope to see you there!