Peter Lawrence Weninger

WENINGER: Peter Lawrence. It is with great sorrow that we announce the peaceful passing of Peter Weninger on July 18th, 2019 at the age of 90 years. Peter is survived by his loving wife: Viola, three children Ken (Jocelyn), Gene (Kerry), Tracey (Terance) Coderre, seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Peter is also survived by brothers Ron (Elfrieda), Dennis (Lucille), sister Irene Knorr, sister-in-law Clarice Weninger . Predeceased by his parents Frank and Barbara, brothers Johnny, Art and sisters Helen Woods and Francis McEachern . A Celebration of Peter’s life will be held on Friday, July 26th, 2019 at 1:00 PM from the Kelowna Salvation Army Community Church, 1480 Sutherland Ave, Kelowna. A Private Family inurnment will take place at Lakeview Memorial Gardens Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation in memory of Peter. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.firstmemorialfuneralkelowna.com. Arrangements entrusted with First Memorial Funeral Services, Kelowna, BC 250-762-2299

Peter's Eulogy:

Hello Everyone, for those that do not know me, my name is Chad

Weninger and I am Peter’s Grandson. I want to start off by saying what

a tremendous honor it is to be standing up here today to say a few

words and share some family stories about my grandpa on behalf of

our family. I may have been the 3rd choice for this, but as the first

choice among the grandkids, the long-time bet has now been settled as

to who was always Grandpa’s favorite (it was Shelby). I know that my

grandma, along with our whole family, are grateful for all of you being

here to celebrate my Grandpa's life.

Peter Lawrence Weninger was born in Scott, Saskatchewan on July 2,

1929, to Barbara and Frank Weninger and was the oldest of eight

children. The family moved to Kelowna from Scott and Kelowna

became their forever home. On November 6, 1954, Grandpa married

the love of his life Viola Yeast. Grandpa was in search of the perfect

woman and he found her where any respectable man would find such a

stunning lady like my Grandma...at a wedding. He was the best man

and she was a bridesmaid at Uncle Johnny and Auntie Clarice's

wedding. Grandpa and Grandma went on to have three children of

their own, Ken, Gene, and Tracey. Their first son Ken was born 7.5

months after they got married. Now hang on a second… That math

seems off. This is an ongoing joke around the house that Grandma must

have been pregnant at their wedding, but Grandma keeps saying no,

Ken was just premature. I guess we’ll never know. When I heard this

myself, I found it funny that my wife and I are so similar to Grandma

and Grandpa because our oldest son was born 8 months to the day

from our wedding and we like to say babies are born in 8 months. This

is a huge mystery in our family, clearly an undiscovered medical

condition among Weninger men. Gene came 11 months later (because

clearly Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t keep their hands off each

other), and then as Tracey always says they must have finally figured it

out because 6 years later she was born (Daddy’s Little Girl).

Grandpa first started working at the sawmill in Kelowna before he

moved on to construction. He liked it so much he started his own

construction company, Peter L. Weninger Construction Ltd. He loved

building and you always knew when he made something, it usually

weighed a ton and you would never get it apart.

Ken and Gene both worked for Grandpa and it quickly became a true

family business. Gene recalls one job where they had put up footings

and Grandpa asked him to start filling them in... after Gene thought he

had them filled enough he asked Grandpa, “how full do you want

them?” Not knowing he was supposed to be backfilling the outside of

the footings with dirt, Gene had the inside almost full of dirt… a life

lesson on building a good foundation they all had a great laugh about.

Another one of Grandpa’s passions was making wine and his famous

hooch…Ah, the hooch, it was always a party trick in our house growing

up. This stuff was so potent my dad would put some on a spoon and

light it on fire. You always knew how pure it was by how much liquid

was left on the spoon and there was never anything left. Grandpa had

his hidden distillery in the basement that he made from scratch and a

lot of people that visited them at their cabin may recall a sampling.

Never did anyone listen and only have a little bit. Grandma still has

bottles in the back cupboard, so if anyone needs any campfire starter

you know where to go. One time my Dad (Gene) gave a bottle to a

buddy in Calgary. It was a typical cold Alberta winter and his buddy

called him to say his truck wouldn’t start. Gene told him to pour that

hooch in the truck and see what happens. Well, guess what? The truck

started. Just think where the DeLorean from back to the future would

go with that stuff!

Grandpa loved to fish, hunt, play ball, golf, and of course his five-pin

bowling. As one of the condolences said on castanet, he didn’t need a

bowling alley because when he let go of the bowling ball the next place

it hit was the pins. Never could you go into Grandpa and Grandma’s

house without some kind of sports being on the TV. He loved to watch

the Toronto Blue Jays, golf, Vancouver Canucks, curling and pretty

much whatever was on the sports channel, and he always looked

forward to his weekly poker nights.

With two boys, Grandpa was either in the arena or at the ballpark. He

was always very proud of his boys and the sports they played. One

hockey game Gene remembers that he hurt himself badly and Grandpa

went into the dressing room and said: “you better not be faking.” As it

turned out, Gene had dislocated his shoulder. My dad always told me

Grandpa was tough on them when it came to sports, but by the time it

came to me playing hockey Grandpa was always very giving. One year

he made a deal with me that I would get $1/goal. I am still convinced he

was happy when I became a defenceman because one game I took him

for $6!

Then there were always family camping trips to Mable Lake. One

weekend Grandpa had his truck and camper towing the boat. He went

to take the boat off the trailer and backed into the boat launch, but

kept going right off the cement pad and ended up stuck in the sand…

Ken kept yelling “STOP STOP STOP”, but Grandpa just kept backing up..

Ken’s butt went through the camper door as he was trying to push the

boat off while the weekend groceries were now flooded. Ken reached

in, grabbed the toilet paper and yelled to grandma on the beach...

“Look mom the toilet paper is twice the size as it should be!” By this

time the beach was full of onlookers watching the whole event as the

tow truck was trying to pull him out of the lake. The inside of the

camper smelt like fish all weekend. Auntie Clarice was also on the shore

taking a video. To this day no one has seen this video. She always

thought grandpa would be mad at her if she showed it to anyone, a

treasure we will have to dig out and watch one of these days if anyone

can remember what a VHS is.

As everyone knows you could never walk past grandpa without a poke

a nudge or a little tap. A little gesture he did to get a shot in and was his

way of saying he loves you.

In the last year, Grandpa was able to attend his granddaughter Shelby’s

wedding in May, he celebrated his 90th birthday in July and this year

would be 65 years of marriage. 65 years! Grandma, you have to be a

strong individual to put up with one man for that long. I am coming up

on 9 years and I know Julie is already looking at younger models.

On July 18th Peter passed away peacefully in his sleep at Cottonwoods.

He leaves behind his loving wife Viola, sons Ken (Jocelyn), Gene (Kerry)

and daughter Tracey (Terance), seven grandchildren, six

great-grandchildren (4 of which I can proudly say are mine!), two

brothers: Ron and Dennis along with his Sister Irene Knorr. He is

pre-deceased by his parents Barbara and Frank, brothers: Johnny and

Art and sister’s Helen and Francis.

I asked my Auntie Tracy, Uncle Ken, and my dad if they could describe

Grandpa in one word. Of course, they couldn’t just give me one, in fact,

auntie Tracy gave me 4.

They described grandpa as;

● Dedicated, proud, loving, gentle and supportive.

Someone said stubborn, After all, he is a Weninger.

So now looking back, we are able to see the legacy Grandpa leaves

behind and the amazing way in which he lived his life.

● He was a dedicated husband, father, and grandfather

● He was proud and showed pride in everything he did and

everyone he touched.

● He was a loving man who cared deeply for everyone around him

and was not scared to show his gentle side.

● and yes Auntie Tracy I am sure there were lots of stubborn

moments sprinkled along the way.

Grandpa, we know you are up there with family and friends and I am

sure they are greeting you with open arms... They probably had the

crib board out and a spot at the poker table ready for you.

Rest in Peace Grandpa - We will all miss you, we will never forget you,

and we love you very very much!!

Thank you!