Obituary of ROMAN KARL UDER

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ROMAN UDER

On Sunday, January 22, 2023 Roman Uder passed away peacefully at Deer Lodge Centre at the age of 84.

He was predeceased by his parents Ludwig and Anna, his wife Martha, his granddaughter Sylvia and many extended family members. Left to mourn his loss are his daughters Stefanie (Silvester) and Barb (Darrell); grandchildren Sara (Craig), Benjamin (Jessa), Kirstin (Edward), Amy (Mitch), Danielle (Daniel) and great grandchild Ruby. His sister Rosamaria (Guenther-deceased) and her children Bernd (Doris), Juergen (Melanie) and Annemarie in Germany will also miss him deeply.

Dad was born in the Saarland area of Germany in 1938. He shared many stories of his childhood with us over the years. Some were happy, some were more difficult to listen to, but all showed his resilience and led him to want a better life for his family. He grew up being raised by many different family members due to the war, but his sister Rosie was like a second mother to him and they always remained the closest of friends with long telephone calls every week. Sometimes one would get a premonition that the other was sick, and quite often they were right.

Dad was a very smart student in school. He was offered many opportunities for further studying, but was also busy helping his father build their house. He enjoyed travel and worked in France for awhile as well as spending time in Italy. He was a jack-of-all-trades and worked many jobs, one being for Villeroy and Boch. It was through this job that he met a lovely woman named Martha who he went on to marry in 1959. Stefanie and Barb were born shortly after and in 1965 the family boarded a ship to Canada after deciding to follow mum's two brothers Alfons and Engelbert who had already immigrated here. They enticed Roman to come join them with the promise of good fishing but forgot to also mention the amount of snow. That first winter was a humdinger.

We lived first in a very small house on Anderson with our aunt, uncle and cousin. After a while, the seams of that house were bursting. Dad got a job very quickly at Versatile Manufacturing as a tool maker, made lots of new friends, joined a church and many opportunities arose for good fishing, hunting, berry and mushroom picking. When our aunt and uncle moved out, we soon followed them and built a new house as well in West Kildonan where many other German speaking people also happened to live. Soon after our new home had a huge garden and the freezers were full every year.

Over the years we spent cherished time camping and being outdoors. Dad loved having company come to visit but also enjoyed going on bus trips with mum, a reconnaissance road trip to California with his brother-in-law Alfons and visiting good friends like the Riesels who live in New Mexico. There were also trips to Germany to get to know our relatives in person. When we grew up and had children of our own, Dad loved spending time with them, showing them the flowers in the garden and he always had new recipes he experimented with for us to try. He was constantly learning news things: taxidermy, baking, cooking. He was always busy and on-the-go. Life was good.

When mum was injured in a car accident later in life, dad became her loving caretaker and did everything he could to help her as she went on to battle the dementia that followed. He was her persistent warrior and was devastated when she died. By coincidence, Martha and Roman both passed away on a Sunday-he made it just in time to reunite with her and meet her for church.

We love you and miss you so much Opa, but we know you are watching over us with your kind eyes and mischievous smile as always. Rest in peace.

We would like to thank dad's neighbours for being such wonderful people and for all their help when he was still at home. As well as a thank you to the staff at Deer Lodge Centre.

A funeral will be held on February 2, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. at Cropo Funeral Chapel 1442 Main Street. Interment will follow at Glen Eden, 4477 Main Street, Winnipeg.

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