We read of the very sad news that our good friend, Edwell, passed away. Our sincere condolences to his family. 
My wife and I went to high school with Ed. I believe I met him at the pool hall since we both hung out there a lot. He liked to carry around a snack of radishes, which he would pass around to anyone interested. I had a few, but they were garden radishes, which were very hot, so most of us passed up on them. He always had a paper bag full of them throughout the summer and sometimes he had something else in it too. You never what to expect with Ed. 
My wife Kathy grew up half an hour south of Barrhead in Meadowview, but went to high school in Barrhead. In grade 11 she sat in front of Ed in class and he always told her stories of Moose Wallow before class started, which were very interesting. She said he just loved to talk.  
Ed collected tons of American coins. His dad was still alive at the time and occasionally when he wasn’t working Ed would break down and spend a few of the coins to buy us some brew. Ed just loved his dad, who always told stories. Ed, being the baby of the family, had his dad to himself since his siblings were quite a bit older, and they were all married when I came along. I met some of them as time went. 
We always called Edwell “Ed”, but his mother did not like that. She he had an Uncle Ed which she did not approve of so she wanted to make sure the names were differentiated. But after a while she accepted me calling him Ed.
Ed said his dad and his dad’s brothers raised many animals, including bears and skunks, even in the house, until the bears became too rambunctious so they made them stay outside. Ed said that deer and moose lived on the property too which they’d raised there. So he really loved nature because of it. I did too because I stayed at my grandma’s every summer as a kid every summer in Christmas Creek. But I liked to think of myself as a hippy kind of guy, so it was like two different cultures getting along.  Cont... 1/3

In August, 1973, I officially met Kathy and we had a terrible car accident just west of town on the Thunder Lake road. We were both taken by ambulance to the hospital. One of the few memories I have of that time period is that the next day Ed came to visit and lifted his pant leg, and offered me a drink of his mickey. The following day I had had several seizures in a row, so they decided to send me to Edmonton. Ed and some of my friends stood near the back of the ambulance and I noticed he was crying. No one knew what was going to happen to me. I had several bruises on my brain from hitting my head on the windshield, steering wheel, side window and ground. I was expected to die, but was sent home as I began losing my memory. So Ed spent a lot of time visiting me. He also helped my mother dig potatoes out at the Samsons.
Ed made it possible for me to get together with Kathy because he drove me to out to Meadowview to get her and we went to a dance at Pevine. He was best man at our wedding, but we lost track of each other for a while. In 1978 we and our little daughter and infant son were at my mother’s house when he came to visit. He invited us to his place for a meal. When we arrived, he had us go with him, his lovely wife and son to a supper at their church, where his wife’s father was minister. But, partway through the service, my son started crying, so we decided to leave. Ed said we would have to get together and he would come to our church next time (LDS). But we both got so busy with our lives, we never did keep in touch. Now we live in Lethbridge.
When our daughter told us that Ed had brain cancer we said we’d have to contact him and we started praying for him and his family every day. Unfortunately, we never got the chance. Now Ed’s on another adventure, and we’re all going to have to catch up to him.
End... 3/3

My family was quite similar. My whole family, the Hudsons and Vormans, knew the Cartwrights quite well, and talked about them often, since the Hudsons lived in the Blue Ridge area, and the Vormans lived in the Christmas Creek area. So they had a lot of interaction with the Cartwrights in Fort Assiniboine, which was not too far from Moose Wallow. He took me out there quite a few times. I met a number of people who lived in Moose Wallow because of him. Ed would talk the ear off my grandparents, who had moved to the west end of town. 
Ed’s family moved into Barrhead and lived in the huge Vandervate house on the east of town. I lived south of town close to the tracks. He spent a lot of time at my house. We used to go on drinking binges. One time I woke up in his car and realized it was full of grass. I thought I was in a field at first because the grass was right to the ceiling. But he was driving down main street, thinking nothing of it. We were the big talk of all our friends. Marvin Fredericks thought it was a real joke. He and a bunch of the other guys were standing outside the pool hall, laughing their heads off. We got out of the car, and there was grass everywhere. 
Another time after a drinking binge, I woke up and once again we were going down main street, with branches to the roof of the car. Of course, this time he parked right in front of the pool hall so everybody could see us. Another episode that had the guys laughing. I never knew what was going to happen next with Ed. He was fun to be around. 
Ed was Kathy’s grad partner in 1971. The first dance was a waltz, but Ed had them do the polka together instead. Kathy was fine with it, as she grew up on the dance floor and loved to polka. 
Every time there was a dance at Pevine, Ed took me to it. That would be a cowboy dance. The folks there all thought he was a good guy, and it was party all night long, so I got to know them too, some of the roughest, toughest guys you ever met. Cont... 2/3

We read today the very sad news that our good friend, Edwell, passed away. Our sincere condolences to his family. 
My wife and I went to high school with Ed. I believe I met him at the pool hall since we both hung out there a lot. He liked to carry around a snack of radishes, which he would pass around to anyone interested. I had a few, but they were garden radishes, which were very hot, so most of us passed up on them. He always had a paper bag full of them throughout the summer and sometimes he had something else in it too. You never what to expect with Ed. 
My wife Kathy grew up half an hour south of Barrhead in Meadowview, but went to high school in Barrhead. In grade 11 she sat in front of Ed in class and he always told her stories of Moose Wallow before class started, which were very interesting. She said he just loved to talk.  
Ed collected tons of American coins. His dad was still alive at the time and occasionally when he wasn’t working Ed would break down and spend a few of the coins to buy us some brew. Ed just loved his dad, who always told stories. Ed, being the baby of the family, had his dad to himself since his siblings were quite a bit older, and they were all married when I came along. I met some of them as time went. 
We always called Edwell “Ed”, but his mother did not like that. She he had an Uncle Ed which she did not approve of so she wanted to make sure the names were differentiated. But after a while she accepted me calling him Ed.
Ed said his dad and his dad’s brothers raised many animals, including bears and skunks, even in the house, until the bears became too rambunctious so they made them stay outside. Ed said that deer and moose lived on the property too which they’d raised there. So he really loved nature because of it. I did too because I stayed at my grandma’s every summer as a kid every summer in Christmas Creek. But I liked to think of myself as a hippy kind of guy, so it was like two different cultures getting along. Cont... 1/3

The day I met you in the hospital 1 year ago it felt like I had known you for years. I loved seeing the videos of you playing the spoons. Rest well Ed.

OBITUARY

Edwell H Cartwright

3 April, 1953 – 22 April, 2020

Rose Garden Chapel

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