Obituary of Kelly Richardson

Kelly William Richardson passed away at the Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, February 25, 2021 at the age of 57 years.

Kelly is survived by: his loving parents, Bob and Betty Richardson; his son, Chad Cole; granddaughter, Kacey Cole;  two step children, Amber (Dusty) Mitten and Jesse Marriott;  his sisters, Micheline (Ken) Huard and their children Kody, Logan and Chantelle;  Nita (Mark) Daniels and their two children, Natalie and Zane;  Jo-Anne (Conrad) Lavallee and their children, Jordan (Shelby) and their son Ben, Lauren, Meghan and Kolby.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a private family Funeral Service for Kelly will be conducted on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 at 10:30 AM. The service will be live streamed and posted on Kelly's obituary at the time of the service.

Donations in memory of Kelly may be made to Kids Sport.
https://kidsportcanada.ca/saskatchewan/lloydminster/donate/

Kelly's memorial card can be viewed or downloaded from the link below.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/47a23cab-6b26-4081-9a71-1f680b3c3ebf

Eulogy:

Kelly William Richardson was born on April 13, 1963 in the old Lloydminster hospital which used to stand a little south west of ES Laird school.  He was blonde and blue eyed and beautiful. He spent his early years in the field on a tractor with his dad, or in a box, yes a box, in the grain truck.  He too, was from a generation where parents had to “work from home while minding the children”, but our parents had to keep us out of augers.  The truck and the field would be special spots through out his life.  When he was 5 he headed off to kindergarten in Lashburn.  Academically he was a good student and retaining details from material he read or heard was never a challenge for him.  This made him quite frustrating to argue with. 

Kelly was the oldest of four children and was certainly blessed to have three little sisters.  As adults, when we travel to obscure towns across the prairies and wonder why we remember the place, it is probably because we camped there while Kelly was at hockey school, or in a ball tournament.  He also played in the school band and participated in Music Festivals.  He didn’t seem to have to try too hard to be good at things.  As the older brother he had good trumpet practicing tips.  One was to record the practice bars on a cassette tape, then rewind, and replay over again many times so it could be heard upstairs.  This way Mom and Dad thought we practiced for the required 20 minutes and would sign our practice cards.  This took more effort than actually practising.

Skiing is another endeavor that he just “picked up”  Years after he was able to entertain us with the story of his first ski trip when he was far too advanced to take the lesson and able to swish, and swish and swish  down the hill with the wind in his face, passing other less skilled skiers as he swooshed to the bottom of the hill…. and beyond.  He was so good that he achieved all his skiing goals in that one trip and never had to go again.

We were a good team.  We once plotted to find a “put to sleep gun” and put our dear mother out the back bedroom window after we had been unfairly sent to our room, so she wouldn’t know where she was, when she awoke. Then she would be sorry that she had sent us to our room . And another time when we had been told we had to walk home from the field, again, “for no reason”, we spirited ourselves flat and sneaky into the back of the truck box and did get our ride home.  At the gate to the driveway we thought we better get out of the truck before we were discovered, so, made a jump for it as the vehicle slowed, sorta, for the corner.  Kelly didn’t make the ditch and ended up looking like a raspberry full of gravel.

As a big brother his counsel was sought especially when mom was at work.  For several nights, dad had been in charge of the bedtime stories, and we planned and planned how we were going to tell mom, who was a teacher, that dad could not read.  Every story he “read” had a slightly different plot than we remembered, and entire parts were left out.  We did not know how mom would have the time to teach dad to read and Kelly wanted to break it to her gently.  Dad didn’t know that Kelly had the books memorized.  His memory remained stellar and vivid and through the years he entertained people with funny stories of his childhood.  We grew up with many cousins, some who would come to the farm for the summer, and am sure Kelly was able to teach them a few things.  We had adventures, did chores, biked everywhere, skated, made forts, slid down snow hills dad had made us, swam in the sloughs, hunted gophers and pigeons, and camped out under the bridge to see if we could identify what type of vehicle had driven over.  Having escaped the put to sleep gun, mom was a supportive good sport and even cooked up pigeons for the hunters.   Kelly remembered his childhood as perfect and idolized his parents.

Time moved on, and Kelly found a booming oilfield that had lots to offer a quick learner and a strong kid - and he spent many years in the field working his way up the ranks to Rig Manager.  He spent his time with people who loved him as he built a life in Alberta with his wife and stepchildren. Among his memorabilia are rig stickers and flags, pictures of his family – of Chad and Kasey, of Jesse and Amber, and letters of gratitude from people he had helped and inspired. 

Although he always had a special fondness for children in his life, he was really able to connect with his nieces and nephews after he moved back to a farm north east of Lashburn where he was closer to family. He never missed a chance instigate chaos which delighted the kids.  He had Natalie eating cake with her toes by the time she was two years old.

Now in our fifties, and with Kelly back at the table more often, he would quickly lick Jo-Anne’s spoon when she would be distracted serving the meal, and then put it back in place.  This put the Lavallee kids in a dilemma as they really wanted to see the prank go off but could hardly contain themselves and weren’t sure whose side to pick.  It didn’t matter that much because Kelly would break out in laughter as soon as the kids started to giggle – so the jig would be up.  This prank was such a regular part of the meal, that Jo-Anne should have just carried plastic cutlery with her.  Although mom still had to referee her grown children at family meals, Kelly could make her laugh uncontrollably.

Those lucky enough to really know Kelly will remember his hearty “all in” laughter and his sense of humour.  Although he pictured himself as a stealthy prankster, he always gave himself away with laughter.  He took the time to send cartoon clippings with altered captions to specific recipients who would get the new punchline. Meghan got cartoon stick people messages. He had a habit of collecting jokes so that he would have a stockpile to choose from when texting his nieces.  His neighbors, the Lavallees and Richardsons always knew if he had stopped in while they were away because he left drawings, jokes, and instructions for something ridiculous.  The “Claw” was another way he could sent his nieces into fits of hysteria.  Kelly got such joy out of watching the kids grow up and cheering them on, even if he wasn’t always socially correct, like the time he shouted, “Now she is going to eat you!” after Lauren had hit a batter with a hummer from the mound. It became known as “The Sequoia Incident”  As the Lavallee kids grew up and left home, Kolby got Kelly’s full attention

They had riddle streaks going on their phones and Kelly was hard to stump.  They both loved root beer floats and one time Kelly brought her one from Lloyd just because.  Before his ‘untimely demise’, Kelly was able to refurbish an antique sled for his great nephew’s first winter. He and Ben would have been very good friends. Jordan will miss Kelly’s predictable greeting.  Whenever Jordan said, “Hi Uncle”, Kelly responded with a hearty “Hi Uncle” back to him.

Kelly loved dogs and dogs loved Kelly. He had many throughout his life including Sporty, Murph, and of course Harriet.  The dogs quickly figured out that Kelly was loyal and easy to train.  Their man was their best friend.

Kelly will be remembered for his generosity, his loyalty, his sharp wit and sense of humour, his contagious laughter, and the love he had for his family.

 

 

February 26, 2021

I want to start by thanking Bob and Betty for inviting myself and my brother Jesse to be here with Kelly’s family to honor him. Many of you don’t know me, I am Kelly’s stepdaughter.

Kelly came into our lives when I was 13 and Jesse was 11, he really walked into a hornets nest. It takes a strong and patient man to walk into the lives of 2 traumatized and extremely volatile children, and he did it with grace.

Kelly was the calm in our storm, he was a rock. Kelly accepted us for the humans we were and cared for us in that way, he never tried to change a single thing about us. He never forced relationships, he just let them naturally progress, and Kelly being the funny, and gentle man that he was, it didn't take long for us to love him. In fact it didn't take long at all. In the 26 years I have known Kelly, I have never seen him lose his temper, oh I know he was stubborn and defiant to authority, and I do know that he would tell people his exact feelings on a particular topic, but he never lost control. He would just say what he thought, and that was the end of it. Kelly was just able to accept people and situations for what they were, like or not he could accept it. Not many people can say that about themselves and he was the first person to ever show me that side of things.

To us though, he never spoke a cross word, never gave a lecture and always offered support and in some cases I am sorry to say, he even had to offer up protection and a buffer, and he did that without ever saying a word about it. Kelly I believe gave up a lot of himself to protect us. He is the most loyal, generous and most of all humble person I had ever met. In fact if I had to sum up Kelly in a word, it would be humble. He never understood how remarkable he was and what an impact he made. I was always proud to have him in my life. Kelly faced many hardships and stress during his years in Red Deer, but I still remember him as a happy person who was always laughing. He was satisfied with the simple things in life. He loved a comfortable chair, meat and potatoes with Ketchup for dinner and a good hockey game. He never needed or wanted anything lavish or fancy. He was simply satisfied with what he had and making others happy. Remarkable.

Because of Kelly we were able to have opportunities that would never have been available to us otherwise. Kelly worked very very hard in his life and provided us with stability. He also made it possible for me to go to college and work towards finishing high school. In that time, I also worked hard at several jobs, but Kelly paid for my schooling, helped me with a down payment on a reliable car and provided a place for me to live. He used to laugh hysterically at how much food I could put away after a hard days work. He would just keep it coming to see how much I would eat, and while we sat there he would make fun of me and tell me all of his ridiculous jokes. That was something we had in common, we were both the type of people who found our own jokes hilarious even when no one else did. Who cares what they think anyway.

I know that everyone here understands what a special person Kelly is, but I thought you would want to know how loved and appreciated he was in our world too. And on that note I am truly sorry that they were separate worlds. Everyone loved and respected Kelly including my dad. It is difficult as I am sure you can imagine to give props to anyone else helping to raise your children, but my dad always told me how glad he was that we had Kelly in our lives and what a great man he was.

You would be proud to know that he was a loving, dependable, kind, and patient man who provided 26 years of strength to Jesse and I.

I will miss every single thing about him, the fact that even though I am almost 40 years old and he still called me “kid”, his jokes, his stories about Hank, and even when he would end text conversations with me by typing “too much typing”. Kelly spoke of his family in Saskatchewan with pride and always kept us up to date on how everyone was doing, filled me in on the progress of Bobs truck, meals with Betty, adventures of his uncle Fred, and he even mailed me newspaper cuttings of events and sent me pictures of Chad’s beautiful daughter so I could see who was in his world. I was so happy for Kelly when he finally moved back home to be closer to you all. Even though I missed him dearly, I knew that is where his heart was.

I don’t really know how to end this other than to say I am blessed to have some amazing men in my life, my brother Jesse, my husband Dustin, my dad Mark, and right up at the top of that list of support and strength…. My stepdad, Kelly. I will truly miss him and he will forever be in my heart. I just hope he knew how very special he was and most importantly, I hope he felt how loved he was.