Obituary of Shane Loiselle

It is with deep sadness that we anounce the passing of Shane Loiselle, a life-long resident of Dawson Creek, British Columbia, on Saturday, December 3, 2022, at the age of 65 years. 

Eulogy

Shane Roger Loiselle

Good after noon and welcome everyone, as we celebrate the life of Shane today, it is important for us to remember how much richer our lives have been as a result of our with relationship with Shane.

Shane’s family and several of his closest friends, have shared their fondest memories and with their permission I’ll share them with you.

On a rainy day in Pouce Coupe, BC the date was August 6, 1957, a sweet little fella came into this world and his name was Shane Roger Loiselle. Shane’s proud parents Roger & Joyce Loiselle were extremely excited with this brand-new bundle of joy, you see Shane was their first and to boot, a baby boy.  

It didn’t take long for Shane to be introduced to his life-long passion with horses, at the age of 4 he was already touring the Peace Country with his dad, hauling Barney Hogg’s bucking horses around to the local rodeos. His Mom Joyce recalled that Shane knew almost all the horses by name at that young age. (the one’s he didn’t know probably didn’t buck)

 At the age of 7, Shane participated in a driving class for horse and carts put on by Miller Patterson. Miller asked Shane to do a “figure 8“.   Shane being only 7 and not much for schoolin told Miller he didn’t know what an 8 was!

 That same summer Shane won his first Gymkhana trophy and then drove that same cart with his horse Pinto in the Fall Fair parade with his brother Lance, who would have only been 5 years of age at the time. 

Shane continued winning trophies in various events throughout the years involved in gymkhana and high school rodeo.  He started roping at an early age and was a natural and didn’t have to work very hard at it, his mom said she always wondered how far he could have gone, there were only two things holding Shane back; he didn’t like practicing and worse he didn’t like structure. 

The trophies he, Lance and Sherry won adorned the walls of the bunkhouse at the family farm. There were two trophies that should have been handed out both to Shane’s poor little sister Sherry; one for most revolutions in a clothes dryer compliments of her brothers and Barry and Lorne Hommy and the second for being the only submarine test pilot to come out of the Peace Country. You see Shane and Lance thought it was a great idea to put their little sister in a barrel, seal it off and push it into the Dawson Creek behind their farm. 

Shane would always talk about his childhood with Lance and Sherry.  They were all very close in age.  Shane and Lance loved having a younger sister to torment. 

When Shane was older, he tried his hand at pony chuck wagon driving and did this for close to 5 years.  He loved the rush of racing around the track.  But he also loved the comradery and all that came with those that participated. George Streeper said “it was exciting and a real crowd pleaser, and the biggest reason they all gave it up was due to an income tax problem. If they didn’t quit there wasn’t going to be enough money left over to pay their taxes.”

After racing Shane volunteered his time looking after the infield for Connie Patterson for the Chuckwagons, chalking and measuring lines, placing barrels looking after gates. Shane taught Kodi and I and many others how to do a topnotch presentation without getting run over by thoroughbreds. Shane was patient and a great teacher.

Ranching was a family effort with the Loiselle family, and everyone was involved in the entire process.  Roger and Joyce raised around 400 head of cattle and Shane was involved from feeding to pulling calves. Branding days in the spring were exciting at times and yet stressful after a long period of calving out, the cattle went out to pasture.  But it always involved everyone’s participation from a young age and always ended with drinks in the pasture to celebrate. 

As a young boy Shane played hockey, and baseball. In his late twenties he played for the Dawson Creek Canucks. He also played fastball on the men’s team.  After his body no longer allowed him to play contact sports, he took up curling, going to hockey games usually sitting with Garry Bratt and caring for his horses right here with Rea Chapman.  

Shane met Janet in 1983 and were married on July 5, 1986.  In 1989 they welcomed their first born, a daughter Kassi Lee and in 1992 welcomed a son, Kodi Shane.  The kids kept both Shane and Janet busy with their Kassi and her figure skating and Kodi with his hockey. 

Interests

Shane started working at the auction mart at the age of 12.  He was responsible for bringing the animals into the ring and doing the grunt work. 

When Shane was 14, he went up north to Bob Kjos’ guide and outfitting territory at Mile 428 near the Toad River, to wrangle horses for the hunters. He would always share many fond memories of being up there.

George Streeper recalled that Bob Kjos told him they were crossing a river with a bunch of pack horses, things went sideways, and Bob went off his horse into the river. Shane threw him a lariat and pulled him to shore. That is one story Shane never shared with many people.

Shane worked as a truck driver/equipment operator the majority of his life.  He worked with various companies in and around northern BC.  He worked for George Streeper in the Fort Nelson area as a deck hand on Steeper’s barges and in the winter with his brother Lance and good friend Art Guay driving trucks moving seismic camps.

Art remembers one move was up in the Nahanni Valley for Steeper’s, a good 8 hours north of Fort Nelson we were bringing out the camps for Ken Borek. “You would wake up in the morning and the blankets would be frozen to the wall, if you didn’t shower by 5 am it wasn’t going to be a warm one. It was so cold, and we worked around the clock so a lot of times we slept in our trucks, we had to put Lance’s truck in the middle between mine and Shane’s cause Lance would sleepwalk. He would wake up in the middle of the night and start driving, totally out of it, the front truck always woke up to a thud!

When they reached the Nahanni River, it was -58 F and there were ducks floating on the river. There we so may hot springs that flowed into the river it wouldn’t completely freeze over”

After that northern Safari, Shane worked for the Department of Highways, was a shareholder in Peace Country Maintenance and worked for Caribou Road Services, HF Nodes and Billy Jacobsen to name a few.

 Shane’s last job and one he loved was driving school bus.  He thoroughly enjoyed the kids on his bus route.  Many of them would come up and say hi, years after not seeing him and tell Shane he was their best driver. Shane remained there until two years ago when his health started to decline.  There are still school pictures of some students on the fridge at home. A memory Kassi remembers fondly was when they went to the Alabama Concert and Dad was standing on the concourse.  One by one kids would stop by and hug Shane and tell him all about what was going on in their life.  He could remember each one of them and remembered their interests.  As you can well imagine, most were gymkhana and high school rodeo students. 

Shane was an avid outdoorsman and every summer the family took off with their holiday trailer in August for a 3-week adventure.  Travels took the family out west to Whisker’s Point, Fraser Lake, Terrace, Prince Rupert on multiple occasions, and a trip up north around to Stuart-Cassier and south to Lac Le Juan south of Kamloops.   The trips always included lots of swimming, fishing, and good eating.  Both Kassi and Kodi loved to fish with their dad.

The other passion Shane passed on to the kids was his love for music and dancing. Janet remembers the time they were coming home from a party and pulled up in the driveway.  Shane had the music turned up, both of them singing.  Shane didn’t miss a beat, grabbed Janet and they danced on their front lawn under the moonlight.  It was pretty typical to hear him coming down the road with his music blaring.  Getting into the vehicle after Shane drove it, often scared the daylights out of Janet.  Shane loved to listen to the “old country”.  Georgie Jones, Charlie Pride, Hank Williams and Merle Haggard just to name a few. He knew every song by heart and did not hesitate to belt them out.  And he always seemed to sing better around a campfire after a few cocktails.  Shane purchased a guitar a few years ago with good intentions to learn to play.  However, he had aspirations to do many things but as his health declined, he came to terms that his dreams could not be achieved.  These dreams included riding, breaking, and driving horses. Purchasing a wagon, cart, and harness.

Shane loved the bush.  He would tell Janet that if he could, he would live out in the middle of nowhere – like Dick Proenneke who lived alone until he was 80 years old in Alaska.  Shane loved river boating and purchased his own river boat in 2002 and often his trips took him to Williston Lake and the tributaries around there.  Also, he went up the Murray River, the Parsnip, the Muskwa and the Pine, Dick Wagner and I were on a lot of those trips either in Dick’s or Shane’s boat it really didn’t matter who’s boat we always made them Hall of Fame trips. 

In the summers he enjoyed sitting around the campfire with his close friends. 
They would often be playing cards, and board games. He would not be afraid to let everyone know the “house” rules, because he knew every rule to every game – or so he thought anyway. 

Both Shane and Janet loved to golf and participated in many tournaments at Farmington Fairways.  When the kids were younger, they would all camp out at the golf course. He enjoyed going to men’s night when his schedule would allow it.

When the air was crisp and the leaves started to fall, the family would go on Sunday drives up onto Bear Mountain.  Shane loved chicken hunting and often had his gun with him. This is a passion he passed along to Kodi. Shane loved the thought of getting into archery. Kodi can remember going out on his first bow hunt with his dad. Shane had brought the video camera to capture Kodi’s first deer, but instead of the excitement of shooting his first animal, Shane was mad because he forgot to take the lense cap off the camera. Shane trying to teach Kodi how to dress out an animal, ended up dry heaving the entire time. He stood ten feet away while trying to tell Kodi the proper way, because any time he would get near the deer it would result in him gagging. Kodi had to figure that one out all on his own.    

Shane had an uncanny sense of direction almost everywhere he went.  As a hunter, truck driver or a school bus driver he could recall a road number or flow of the road, he knew every inch of the community pastures, as well as all the cutlines to Tumbler and where every secret cabin was hiding.

We shared many hunting trips together, Shane was a great outdoorsman and his cooking on an open fire or propane stove was amazing.

In April 2021 his grandson Kaiden was born, the apple of his eye.  From day one they had a special bond that nobody could replace. As Shane’s health started to deteriorate Kaiden would sit with his Pa and read a book or watch a game with lots of movement.  Shane would greet Kaiden as “Boo-Boo”.  They would visit up to 3 times a day on FaceTime.  If Kaiden didn’t call, he would call him.  He loved to see him grow and say new words.

After Shane had his hip replacement in 2014, it was discovered that Shane’s kidney was beginning to fail.  Shane and Janet would travel to Prince George twice a year to visit the Renal Clinic.  In 2021 Shane’s kidneys could no longer support him and he had to have surgery to have a catheter inserted into his peritoneal cavity in order for him to do his dialysis exchanges. 

He navigated through this process nightly like a trooper, however the neuropathy pain was so severe, it limited his movement.  However, when Shane’s friend Wayne “Hoss” Pringle suffered a stroke. Shane still found time to visit Wayne in the hospital every day until walking wasn’t an option for him anymore. He spent the last 2 months, sitting in his chair watching the Cowboy Network and whatever sporting event was on tv.  Shane lost feeling in his feet and was using a walker. 

He celebrated Christmas with his family on December 3^rd, opening gifts and watching Kaiden run about.  He enjoyed his favorites that go along with a turkey dinner and when he returned to his chair that evening, he passed.  Surrounded by the people he loved most.

Shane was a kind gentle soul, who always had time for everyone and was thoroughly engaged in every conversation and person that crossed his trail.

Grandma Joyce, Janet, Kassi & Colin and little Kaiden, Kodi, Anissa, Lance & Deanna, and Sherry, all the nieces and nephews, cousins and relatives.   Shane loved you all and was so proud of all of you.

Poem

“You fall, you rise, you make mistakes, you live, you learn.  You’re human, not perfect.  You’ve been hurt, but you’re alive.  Think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breath, to think, to enjoy, and to chase the things you love.  Sometimes there is sadness in our journey, but there is also lots of beauty.  We must keep putting one foot in front of the other even when we hurt, for we will never know what is waiting for us around the bend.”

Take a moment now if you like and shake a neighbor’s hand, smile and let them know it’s great to see them. Life is precious and much too short.

Shane you will be missed by your family and your friends more than you will ever know.  Rest in peace my friend.  

A Memorial Service will be held at the Lakota Agriplex on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 2:00pm. 

For friends so wishing, donations may be made in memory of Shane to the Hats & Chaps Gymkhana Club; RR1, Comp 17, Site 6, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, V1G 4E7

Very Respectfully, Reynars Funeral Home & Crematorium