Mr. Evert Ten-Hove of Red Deer, Alberta passed away at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at the age of 91 years.

He was born in Zwolle, The Netherlands, during the Depression and grew up during the war. He was the second-oldest child, and oldest boy, in a family of ten children.

Evert lived through the war as if watching a dangerous live TV show as a kid; he had many stories to tell about watching air raids with his brother, Dick, collecting shell splinters, and picking up fish in the river, which had been stunned by bombs. His mother hated that he refused to go into the air raid shelter, but he got his way, and the fish were welcome.

He knew what he wanted and steadfastly got it. After the war, his future was clear: he’d be a farmhand on his grandparent’s nearby farm. Clear to others, but not Evert. He went to Technical School instead. His parents tried to get the school to let him go, but he was a good student with a gift for technical matters, and so he stayed.

When his father decided to move the family to Canada after the war, he sent Evert ahead to get everything ready. The nineteen-year-old stayed with his uncle, John Tenhove, who homesteaded near Red Deer, Alberta, and John wanted him to be a farmhand.

Evert worked in construction instead and became an apprentice electrician. It helped that he was often the only one who could read complicated electrical diagrams.

The rest of the family came over the next year, and Evert had a place ready for them, complete with furniture. His mother was especially pleased with an antique oak table with lots of leaves that he picked up for $25. She could fit the whole family around it, even the babies still coming. That table is still in the family.

After Evert became an electrician, he became the go-to man for complex and difficult jobs. He could look at a puzzle that stumped others and the answer would just jump out at him. He was a union man and proud of his sixty-year IBEW Certificate.

He met his great love, Margaret Gort on a blind date in 1957. They had three children: Ron, Gary, and Irene and eventually two grandchildren, Lizzy and Kay.

They realized dreams that were unthinkable back in the old country. He bought his own car, a 1933 Ford, and then a 1942 Plymouth that he talked about to the end of his days. They bought a house in Calgary. They even built a vacation place on Buffalo Lake.

In the 1980’s, an opportunity came to retire early, and they took it. Evert bought houses, renovated them, and sold them. They lived in Duncan, BC, then Sicamous, BC, then Red Deer, then Summerland, BC, and finally Red Deer again.

When Margaret’s health failed, Evert devoted his life to caring for her until her death in 2018. They were married sixty years and eleven months.

Despite his age, he was spry and vigorous almost to the end. Evert didn’t sell his condo in Red Deer and move into a retirement home until 2023. By 2024, time and ancient injuries caught up with the strong old man and he spent more time in the hospital than out of it.

His was sometimes a hard life, with a hard start and many challenges and difficulties, but he chose to regard it as a good life. It never soured him, and he was positive to the end.

He died, surrounded by his children, on May 15, 2024.

It was Margaret’s birthday.

Evert will be lovingly remembered by his sons, Ron, of West Concord, Massachusetts, and Gary, of Calgary, Alberta, his daughter, Irene, of Peterborough, Ontario, their spouses, Moira, Anna, and Scott Nichols, and his granddaughters, Lizzy of San Jose, California and her husband, Matt Patenaude, and Kay, of West Concord.

He will also be sadly missed by his brothers, John and James Tenhove and his sisters, Alice, Jenny and Ena, John’s wife, Grace and Ena’s husband, Barry Cunningham, as well as numerous nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews.

Evert Ten-Hove overcame a lot of adversity to accomplish a great deal in his long life, and he earned the respect and love of his enormous extended family.

Cremation entrusted to Parkland Funeral Home and Crematorium, Red Deer, Alberta. Condolences, memories and photos may be shared and viewed at www.parklandfuneralhome.com

Parkland Funeral Home and Crematorium (Red Deer)

6287 – 67 A Street (Taylor Drive), Red Deer. 403.340.4040.

ONLY LOCALLY FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED FUNERAL HOME/CREMATORIUM

IN THE CITY OF RED DEER

• Date : 2024-05-30
• Location : (Red Deer) Locally Family Owned (Red Deer/Blackfalds/Eckville) www.ParklandFuneralHome.com & (Innisfail/Olds/Didsbury/Sundre) www.HeartlandFuneralServices.com