Don't know what to title this

I don’t know what to call this blog entry… On Monday evening, Mr Allan Bienert went to be with the Lord. “Uncle Al,” as he was known to our family, was like a grandpa to me… in some ways more of a grandpa than either of my two biological grandparents. When our family first moved to Three Hills, Uncle Al and Auntie Vi and their family welcomed us in various ways. Initially, I was impressed with Uncle Al because of his love for sports – hockey and baseball especially, but other sports were good too! As a young boy of 7, 8, 9 or 10 years old, he was the only guy as fanatical about sports as I was!!! BTW, years later, Uncle Al was the person who won the “Name-the-team” contest when the Three Hills Thrashers Junior B hockey team started. I remember going to countless sports events with Uncle Al… and my brother Tim joined us sometimes too – to baseball games and tournaments, to the Mac’s Midget Hockey Tournament where we first watched Petr Nedved and Uncle Al knew he was a “special player,” to Olds Grizzlies games, and local sports too (PCA Sabres, PBC Pilots, etc)

Of course, as our families got to know each other, I also learned that he was a fantastic teacher – having taught in Three Hills at both Prairie Christian Academy (formerly Prairie High School) and Three Hills High School, especially English! He was also a fine father to their five children – not a perfect dad as he would tell you, but a dad who loved and prayed for his kids and loved each of their unique gifts, talents, abilities, quirks, etc. And he and Auntie Vi prayed the same way for their grandkids too! As their children left the nest, they had our family over many times and we enjoyed Auntie Vi’s great cooking and Uncle Al’s great humour… and playing “Dictionary game” and Rook with the Bienert and friends.

I was privileged to visit Uncle Al a couple times last week before he passed away… and he was very much aware of what was happening to his body and was very much ready to go home to be with the Lord. He wasn’t fatalistic or depressed about the situation, but in fact very much at peace with the end of his earthly life nearing. It was great that all his children got to be here for a few days and say their goodbyes… and that Mr B (another nickname from our family) did not have to “endure” 2-3 weeks (or more) of a slow, painful decline in or out of consciousness.

These next few days will certainly be a mixture of joy and sorrow for the family and friends. And dear Auntie Vi will certainly miss Uncle Al LOTS!!! Yet there is no doubt where they put their strength and hope during their entire lives… and we know that the LORD will continue to give grace to Auntie Vi for each moment in the days ahead.