Eric Begalke

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ERIC BEGALKE

Eric Allan Begalke passed away accidentally Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014 at the age of 30 years. He will be lovingly remembered by his wife, Amanda, and two children, Mikayla and Lucas. He is also survived by his father Gary Begalke; mother Yvette (Isaac) Reimer; sister Laura (Renny) Klassen and niece Lauren; brother Clinton Begalke; Aunt Karen (Richard) Friesen; Aunt Janet (Richard) Smith and cousin Ethan; Aunt Emily Lessard; grandmother Marianne Begalke; grandparents Jean and Louis Comeault; Amanda's family: father-in-law Bob Freeman, mother-in-law Norma Strawa and Bill Bryk, sister-in-law Crystal (Alan) Klein, brother-in-law Tommy Freeman, and Amanda's grandmother Mary Strawa.

Eric was predeceased by his grandfather Walter Begalke in 1999.

Eric was born May 1, 1984 at the S Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. On Sept. 2, 1985, at the age of five months, he was baptized at St Paul's Lutheran Church in Steinbach.

Eric grew up on the family farm. He loved the outdoors and nature. At an early age he was happy and content to be playing with building blocks or some sort of toy which required the skills of putting something together or taking something apart. By the time he was nearly three years, he was still only saying a few words and his parents were somewhat concerned, wondering why this child wasn’t talking more than this. Then one day everything changed and Eric went straight into speaking full sentences! One of Eric’s first sentences was “Eric is talking now”. Everyone who knew Eric would say it was from that day forward that he never stopped talking!

Eric attended grade school in St Pierre, graduating from St Pierre Collegiate in 2002. After this he worked in the construction field, including a number of years together with his Dad. Thereafter his career path changed, steering towards mechanics. Our family was tremendously proud of him when he sought post-secondary education and achieved licenses both in auto mechanics and heavy duty diesel mechanics. He worked for various companies, including Baudry Construction in Ste Agathe where he had the opportunity to get to know his Great-Uncle Waldo who was also employed there. A past co-worker of Eric’s from Baudry's once remarked how much he had enjoyed working with Eric, even though Eric had tendencies to play a lot of practical jokes while there...he also commented that for being a Frenchman, Eric spoke the worst French he had ever heard!

At the time of Eric's passing he was employed as a mechanic and semi-truck driver for both Hawker's Trucking out of Selkirk and United Transportation Drivers Training of Steinbach. During the winter months he would drive semi-truck for Hawker's Trucking, transporting goods over the winter roads in northern Manitoba. One of his highlights was when he met the Ice Road Truckers, Rick and the Polar Bear, who were out there on a film shoot. They were kind enough to stop and take a few pictures together with Eric beside his semi. How Eric loved to show off these pictures! So much that he carried his photo albums along with him in his car!

Eric was a man of immense integrity, intelligence and ambition. At the age of 20 he purchased his home in St Malo, which later became his family homestead. It was in 2007 that Eric met and fell in love with Amanda. Their beautiful daughter Mikayla was born in 2008 and this ray of sunshine brought, and continues to bring, so much joy to the family. In 2009, Eric and Amanda were married at the Blessed Margaret Church in St Malo, MB. Three years later they completed their family with the birth of their son Lucas. This little boy became the apple of his Dad’s eye, a mini Eric who copied everything his daddy did. Eric had the deepest love for his family. Everything he did, he did for them. He was an extremely hard worker and he worked equally as hard at being a good husband and father.

We will cherish all of the wonderful memories we have of Eric. We can find solace in knowing that Eric was a man of faith. We will miss him, his smile, his sense of humour and all the other attributes that made him the great person that we love. Rest in peace Eric.

The funeral service for Eric Allan Begalke will be held Monday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. at the Blessed Margaret Church in St Malo, MB. Birchwood Funeral Chapel are in charge of arrangements.

The family wishes to express appreciation and gratitude for all the prayers, words of encouragement, cards and expressions of sympathy received from family and friends.

Donations may be made to a trust fund for Mikayla and Lucas.

As published in The Carillon on Oct 28, 2014