Obituary of John Arthur Weathered

September 17, 1937 – Swift Current, Saskatchewan

December 18, 2024 – Calgary, Alberta

John Weathered, beloved husband of Grace Weathered (predeceased May 29, 2021) of Calgary, AB, passed away on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at the age of 87 years.

He was born in Swift Current, SK, on September 17, 1937, to Eva (nee Matthews) and Thorley Weathered.

John grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Marcelin, SK, where his love of agriculture and working with his hands was fostered. John completed his steam fitter and pipe fitter certifications after he worked all over Alberta in oil and gas refineries.

He married the love of his life Grace Viola Whieldon on July 5, 1958. They met at a social dance and fell in love. They lived in Edmonton, AB, and Calgary, AB, where they raised their children until they moved to the Weathered family farm in 1971 at Marcelin, SK. They built a beautiful house on the farm in 1979 and farmed their family land for 28 years. In addition to raising their five children and helping with his seven grandchildren, John thoroughly enjoyed his 1¼ sections of farmland, and his life on the farm.

John was a loving and devoted husband and father. He always sought opportunities to help others by sharing his wealth of knowledge regarding farming and farming machinery with all their friends and family in the surrounding area. If anyone had a problem with their machinery, they would call on John to come and see if he could help figure out the problem. John had a great mechanical mind always tinkering with his machinery or building a new piece of equipment to try to improve the output on the farm. John loved having all the grandkids out to the farm, where he and Grace fed them all the farm-fresh veggies they could get them to eat and would send them home with all the farm-fresh veggies and canned goods they could carry. Grandpa John was always quick to take the kids out for trips on the various farm machinery in the summer sharing his love and knowledge about farming. In the winter, he was always first on the trike to drag the grandkids around on the tire tubes, where many giggles and belly laughs were to be had. In the summer, you could always count on John to take Grace and friends, to go picking berries of any kind, anywhere, and at the drop of a hat. In the winter John and Grace loved to go curling, play cards, snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing. He accumulated many wonderful life-long friends in the farming community, and in the cities, they lived, and on the many Pipe/Steam fitting projects he worked on. All his co-workers had kind and wonderful things to say about him, and his work ethic and job-specific knowledge. If there was a problem on the plant with some pipe routing the managers would call John to redesign it, and make it work, so that the project could move forward.

In 1998 John retired, and he and Grace sold the family farm and moved to St. Albert, AB, where they built a beautiful home. It was there that they began their love of RVing and had many wonderful adventures across Canada and the USA. In 2000 they travelled to Alaska with their RV and panned for gold. In 2005 they moved to Saanichton, BC, and continued their RVing adventures, joined the local legion, and rekindled their love of social dancing. In 2011, John and Grace moved to Abbotsford, BC, where they discovered their love of Square Dancing and joined three local Square-dancing clubs. They also continued their adventures in RVing across Canada. In 2017, John and Grace moved to Calgary, AB, to be near family and where John and Grace also joined many Square and Social Dancing clubs.

Surviving John are three of his children; his two sons, Don (Pam) and Todd (Kim); his daughter, Jody (Sandra); his three sisters, Joyce (Brian), Jan (Warner), and Helen. John also was blessed with nine grandchildren, Jeremy, Jeanine, Tyler, Trisha, Ashley, Stacey, Kelsey, Paul, and Vivian; and eighteen great-grandchildren, Ryder, Bloom, Nash, Oakley, Brax, Inez, Elise, Anna, Isadora, Kalista, Cecilia, Zachary, Meadow, Briar-Rose, Lilyane, Kyra, Olivia, and Blair.

John was predeceased by his father Thorley, mother Eva, son Jerry, and daughter Ava.

A private Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.

If friends so desire, memorial tributes may be made directly to the Canadian Cancer Society, 200 – 325 Manning Rd. N.E., Calgary, AB T2E 2P5 Telephone: (403) 205-3966, email donorservices@cancer.ab.ca.

Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared and viewed with John’s family here.