Obituary of Dennis Primeau

Dennis Leonard Primeau passed away in the Lloydminster Hospital, Lloydminster, Saskatchewan on Friday, March 20, 2015 at the age of 59 years. Dennis leaves to mourn his passing: his loving wife, Hazel; two sisters: Judy (Jerry) Bruce and Linda Jones; one brother, Allen (Marlene) Primeau; three sisters-in-law: Dianne (Doug) Smith, Edie Livingston and Darlene Pollard; one brother-in-law, Irvin (Mary-Anne) Carson as well as numerous other relatives. Donations in memory of Dennis may be made to the Lloydminster Region Palliative Care. EULOGY Good morning everyone. My name is John Hardes and I've known Dennis for over 20 years. Most of what I know about Dennis is from those years. Most of what I know about Dennis is from those years of working around him. Thank you to Hazel, Allen and Marlene and other for sharing stories and helping me with things that I didn't know about Dennis. Dennis was the second youngest of 8 siblings. The first 2 years or so of his young life he had spent in and out of the hospital as he was very sick as a child. There was no stopping him as he grew older. He was your typical kid doing kid things. Dennis was a kind brother but also had the little devil inside him. Allen remembers when Dennis was about 11 years old he loved his BB gun. He recalls on more than one occasion Dennis chasing him down the alley and shooting him I the ass with that BB gun. Dennis thought it was a big joke. Dennis was well known in the neighborhood for kindness and friendships. Dennis took up a paper route for a short time and then in winter he would go around shoveling sidewalks in the neighborhood. Dennis did his schooling at St. John's, St. Mary's and Boucher School in Prince Albert, SK. After his schooling he decided to go out into the world. He tried his hand at a few different jobs till he found his passion. In the late 1970's Dennis was employed as a truck driver hauling fence for his sister and brother-in-law, Jerry and Judy Bruce. He also resided with them in Holbien, SK. Later Dennis took up work building brick chimneys and other brick work. He still had not found his true passion for work until he took up employment with the county of Vermilion as a backhoe operator. He worked for the County for a few years installing gas line. Around 1982 Dennis went to work for Wayne Mullaly as a backhoe operator in the oil patch. Dennis and Hazel first met in September of 1989. He continued his employment with Wayne until around 1990 when he switched employers and went to work for Glen Carr, again as a backhoe operator. He worked for Glen approximately 3 years. In 1993 Dennis then took up employment with Hardy for 10 years and then decided that he would venture out on his own. Dennis and Hazel started up their own business in 2003 working in the oil patch. It was in 2004 that Dennis took on his brother Allen. Both Dennis and Allen worked side by side. Allen and his family relocated back to Saskatchewan in 2005 and Dennis along with Hazel carried on with their company. We all can say that Dennis was compassionate, kind and truly thoughtful. He had that air about him which everyone liked and he made friends easily. This catted Dennis from his childhood years up until the day of his passing. He was a terrific brother (despite shooting Allen with the BB gun). Marlene remembers that Dennis was an awesome in-law; she say's "Dennis was the best brother-in-law". When I first met Dennis in 1993, he and Hazel were managing the Cedar Inn Motel. You can't help but admire people with work ethic like those two. So after his 10 or 12 or 14 hour work day there would still be more to do. The carried on at the Motel for about 3 years. Dennis knows a lot of people and he would get sent all over to take care of business. Eventually he settled into the Tangleflags are which is about 25 to 30 minutes N & E of Lloydminster. Dennis really hit his groove out there and enjoyed the consistency. He was good at remembering people and in turn everyone could remember Dennis. His memory for people and places was phenomenal. Jobs that he had done years before were all registered with him in his personal memory bank. He put on thousands of miles driving equipment around and if he went to a lease once he would never forget it. Dennis packed lots into every day. He was high speed and high energy. He mostly ran rubber tired hoes and even after many years there were things that never changed. He would come roaring onto location and almost instantly knew how to best tackle the job on hand. Not unusual to see the backhoe back up to a job at full speed with the stabilizers going down already. By the time he stopped the seat would be swinging around and his hands would be flying on the rear controls. Never a wasted move. Always eager to take care of the job and get on to the next one. One Christmas eve we got a call-out to an oil spill. I was all cranky and wishing I was somewhere else. If Dennis felt that way you would never know it. He was the same old Dennis. He said "Oh ya, this isn't so bad. We'll get this done up in no time". He was right! Dennis was always geared up for work. I'm sure he enjoyed his down time but I always knew him as "Full Speed Ahead". Over the years Dennis and Hazel camped and holidayed at Stabler point on Loon Lake, Peck Lake and in the Whelan area at Robert and Brenda Preece's hunting camp. The past summer Pete and Barb Ackerman invited Dennis and Hazel to camp on their lot at Turtle Lake. Camping trips were special for fishing, playing crib, drinking a beer or two and acting like he was a kid again. Dennis was thrilled to be around the young kids and to keep the crowd entertained. He enjoyed time on the water pulling kids around on tubes and knee boards. One of the slides we saw earlier was Dennis holding his great-great niece. "A happy time making a new acquaintance". Dennis never had children of his own, but he was thrilled to be around them. Hazel tells me those were his happy times. Dennis loved kids and was an awesome Uncle to all his nieces and nephews. Allen and Marlene would visit and Dennis would spend more time visiting with their kids Troy and Raylene than he did with them. Every kid loved Dennis. They would say how funny he was and he had a fantastic sense of humor. Dennis loved the outdoors for hunting and fishing (although he was highly allergic to fish, he still loved reeling them in). When Dennis was young he was so allergic to fish that his Mom couldn't even cook it in the house. Just from the smell of the fish he got a reaction. Thank goodness he outgrew the allergy enough that he was able to enjoy fishing. Dennis's life revolved around his two most favorite beings, first and most important the love of his life, his wife Hazel. The second was Sylvester or as Dennis called him "baby". For those of you that don't know who Sylvester is, he's the ever loved cat. Sylvester brought such great joy to Dennis's life. Even though Dennis was in the hospital, Hazel would bring Sylvester up to visit with Dennis. This was a true comfort for both Sylvester and Dennis. Dennis and Hazel almost always had a house cat and Dennis could be such a softy. He had this one cat that liked to drink right from the spout at the sink. Dennis would complain about how spoiled the cat was yet he would still take the time to hold the cat up. Then with his free hand he's take the front paw and hold it so the critter had support and balance as it lapped water from under the spout. It struck me as hilarious that such a bust guy would humor a cat. Dennis would laugh and shake his head. I guess maybe deep down he felt just like I did. Dennis and hazel are an awesome couple. Both hard workers with personalities that complimented each other. Dennis could be spontaneous and quick to make decisions. Hazel was his rick to keep him grounded and he knew that was a good thing. Dennis was the finest of fine. He was a workaholic and took pride in his work and his home. Everything he did had to be done to perfection. Thank you to Hazel, Allen and everyone else that helped me put together this brief view of Dennis. Again I'd like to thank Hazel for asking me to be up here today.