Richard is lovingly remembered by his wife of 51 years Ann; their daughters Hélène Carron (Duane Kozarchuk); Lynn Niosi (Michael); his eight grandchildren Justin, Kayley, Cody, Georgia, Shayne, Meg, Lauren, Tony; and his two brothers Yvon and Don.
Richard was born in Edmunston, New Brunswick. He was the youngest of seven boys to his parents Abel and Rose Martin. As a young adult he moved to Montreal, Quebec to work for the airlines which is where he met his soul mate and wife Ann. Richard and Ann took a huge leap, left the airlines and moved their family out west in the hopes of a better future for their girls. Richard came out west with Foothills Pipelines and finished off his career at Husky Oil. Richard and Ann enjoyed their retirement years by travelling the world and spending half the year in Calgary and then the other half as snowbirds in Indian Shores, Florida. Richard loved to go for walks along the beach and loved to play cards with friends and family. Richard’s charismatic personally drew people in as they made friends all around the world as they travelled. Richard’s quick wit and sense of humour always made people laugh.
Richard was predeceased by his parents Abel and Rose Martin, his in-laws Jean and Louise Senecal, his brothers Ron, Lorne, Robert and Roger.
As per Richard’s wishes his ashes will be scattered in the Gulf of Mexico at a later date.
Richard will be dearly missed by his family and his friends as we reminisce on the great memories that were created with him in our lives.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations being made in Richard’s memory directly to the Heart & Stroke Foundation.
Unfortunately due to COVID people were not able to attend the ceremony at the funeral home. These are the words that I (Lynn) spoke at the ceremony......
I don’t have a lot of memories from Montreal but one that is extremely vivid was a time that we were snowed into our home. The snow was so high that it almost reached the top of our front doorway. Grandpa went out with his snow blower and carved a perfect path out of our front door, on our driveway and then began to dig out all of our neighbours. This memory signified the way that Grandpa was. He was always willing to lend a hand. I remember Grandma and Grandpa volunteering at the local pool for carnival days. My favorite part was diving into the pool for money and soggy candies. We then moved to Calgary.
In the early days, the only people we knew were the Twiggs. It was such a long way to go visit them but it was worth it. Both the parents and the kids laughed all night, the kids playing their rock band and cat and mouse and the adults playing cards. It was on one of these evenings at the Twiggs when Grandpa ran over the Easter Bunny. I was worried for the whole year afraid that I wasn’t going to get chocolates or an Easter egg hunt the following year.
Travel was an important activity to both Grandma and Grandpa. I remember trips where Grandpa drove and Grandma sat in the passenger seat with her trip tiks. A big deal was always made when we turned a page on the trip tiks. Playing on the Radio was Dad’s Various Tape. Guaranteed to be played was Elvis, Neil Diamond and the song Key Largo by Bertie Higgins. Some of the places that I remember visiting were Mount Rushmore, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe and of course boring Wyoming.
Grandpa was a gentle man. He didn’t get mad or angry very often so I’m not sure why Grandma used to say “Just wait until your father comes home” however I think it was more knowing that we disappointed him. I did have an occasion that involved months of sandwiches in a suitcase that lead to a not so very happy Grandpa….. What was my punishment you ask? Grandpa wrote out all my additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions from one to twelve. They were all written in perfectly arranged numbers, in pencil, on graph paper. That was Grandpa’s perfectionist side coming through. I had to memorize all the tables and respond with the answers immediately when quizzed and once that was achieved, the punishment would be over. Well would have been over if he didn’t find another freshly squished sandwich in my backpack. I really didn’t like pastrami sandwiches.
I remember when Justin was born, there was a special twinkle in Grandpa’s eye. Although Grandpa always said “I always wanted girls”, There was a new found love for his Grandson. Justin, right from day one would fall asleep on Grandpa’s chest. Speaking of which, Grandpa had a knack for putting babies to sleep on his chest. If he was on an airplane and there was a baby who wouldn’t settle down and he could tell the mom was at her wits end he would offer to hold the baby for just a minute and in less than that the baby would be fast asleep by his soothing heart. Back to Justin, Grandpa taught Justin to play baseball, to play hockey and to play his beloved game of Crib. Grandpa and Justin would play whenever they were together. A few years back Grandpa would be seen by the pool playing crib with his buddies Frank and Robert. Something he loved to do and missed when his friend passed away. Grandpa’s love of card games has passed onto Kayley and Cody too and they play all the time.
On our trip to Mexico when Grandma and Grandpa joined us, the kids were seen playing cards with Grandpa and each other by the pool.
Grandpa had some cool stories to tell. We heard about him breaking his collar bone by crouching behind someone when someone else pushed them down…. Three times. We heard about how Calgary roads are so poorly planned due to his experience as a surveyor when he was a young boy. We heard of the different types of clouds in the sky from his days at the airlines. We heard of him bowling a perfect game. We heard how he bought his dad his first car. We heard of his cat that blew out matches and we heard of the inequalities in his Fantasy Baseball League.
This year was extremely difficult with Covid as we could not see each other as often as we would have liked. We would sneak in a 5 minute face to face when I brought Grandma and Grandpa groceries. They were able to join us for Kayley’s graduation ceremony, celebrate Cody’s birthday and then break the rules and spend Christmas Eve with us. Lucky I beat Grandpa in wii bowling otherwise I would never have had the chance of winning the title back.
There are so many things that I will miss now that you are gone, I will miss having you answer the phone so excitedly because Grandma was out and you could finally get a word in. I will miss saying Hello Grandpa. I will miss playing crib with you. I will miss your hugs (even the extra long awkward ones). I will miss your smile (the ones that make your eyes so squinty). I will miss mom saying “Oh Richard” but most of all I will miss YOU.
I love you Grandpa and may you rest in peace.
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