A sad but uplifting day today at Eastend Saskatchewan. Last Wednesday evening there was a terrible farm accident at Ravenscrag, a small ranching area on the Frenchman River just 30 kms west of Eastend. The true horror of the event includes the fact that the elder brother of these two brothers was also killed in an ATV accident on the ranch in 2008. The basics can be found here.
Today was the funeral for the boys. It was held at the old farmhouse on the ranch. They had prepared for seating for 700 people, but there was a tremendous overflow with standing room only. The town here was deserted for most of the morning. I asked the owner of the campground Ed if it was the day of the funeral and he told me the details. Keep in mind that the whole population of Eastend is only 500. I think every adult male in town was at the funeral.
We were at the municipal offices around noon, and a distraught woman came bursting in, saying there was a brush fire near her ranch, that her husband was out with the tractor trying to contain it, but there was no fire brigade available as all of them were at the funeral. The ladies started bustling around and trying to find some men to go out and help her husband...
By 1PM the men of the town had returned from the funeral and climbed into the water trucks and had the two fire trucks loaded and roared off to fight the fire...
So this is how they do it on the Canadian prairies. Makes you want to weep and smile simultaneously...
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