Alan Roy Horbal

ALAN ROY HORBAL

September 3 ^rd , 1956 to March 10th, 2020

HE IS MISSED

Alan passed away at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria,

Tuesday morning, the 10th of March 2020 surrounded by family.

Alan is missed.  His patience, his joy, his positive attitude,

His unending activity and creativity, his very presence is

so dearly missed by all of us.

Missed by his wife, friend and partner Sharon,

his close friend Doug and his assistant Laura who were with him

daily, doing his lists in life.

By sister Judy and Danny, their son Randall and his brother Larry.

By his niece Cherie, who held a special place in his heart

By his family in laws, Mother Anne, brothers Lincoln and Peter and Nicki,

sisters Crystal and Sonny, Marianne and Don,

their children, his nieces and nephews

By his cousins and his old and dear friends so close to his heart

and their children who were his, in his own special way

Alan is and will be missed by all of us ~

whose stories his heart followed closely,

bringing him miles of smiles over the years,

with memories which merged and formed who he was.

Alan would thank each of you with deep gratitude

for being you, exactly right as you are.

for all the joy, love and sharing you brought to his world

He would say “go forward with joy”.

Alan’s Story as told by me, his wife Sharon

Born in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan to Dorothy and David Horbal on September 3rd, 1956, Alan was a lively baby brother for siblings Judy and Larry.  In 1963, the family moved to Red Deer, Alberta where they put down deep community roots while the children were raised.

Alan’s parents, Dorothy and Dave, inspired their children with strong work ethics, an intense inquisitiveness for how things worked and a determination to look positively on life, regardless of what that entailed.

So every summer, when he packed his suitcase for summer camp, he left behind extra clothes in lieu of space for a load of chocolate bars to resell to his fellow camp mates!

While Alan was a young boy with an empire of growing newspaper routes, he successfully convinced his father to co-sign a bank loan to purchase his first little house in Red Deer which he proceeded to renovate, reroof and rent out for years.

Then Alan set his sights on an acreage by the river, where he played on a wilderness stage larger than the city park across the street.

Among his oldest friends are great stories of dirt biking, river boating, camping and friending.  He re-mortgaged his little house, purchased a duplex in Blackfalds and played practical jokes on all.

Alan worked, graduated, worked, apprenticed for his Journeyman Mechanics ticket and developed long term friendships.   He was becoming known as a loyal friend, a bold thinker, a creative fixer but also as a shrewd negotiator, a master strategist and an outlandish prankster!

On March 7 ^th , 1979, Alan’s father Dave, turned 56 years old and the following day he suddenly and tragically, died.

Seeing her 22-yr old son grieving, his mother encouraged Alan to change his venue, to enjoy life and to “learn how to play”.  So Alan took a long drive through the United States, returning to work as a commercial River Guide for Kumsheen Rafting in Lytton BC.

Through this period of intense grief following the loss of his father,

who was his friend, his mentor, his model, Alan focused on forward, embracing a new regime of risk and responsibility, thrilling new challenges and thoughtful contemplations.

All through the summers he guided vacationers on 1-, 2- and 3-day Thompson River trips, 5-day Chilco trips, full wilderness 8-day Fraser River and Hell’s Gate trips then the Tatshenshini River Expeditions in Alaska.

Each fall, he could chose what he wanted to do where!

Life was wonderfully exciting offering a tantalizing collection of stimulating options to be fully enjoyed and Oh my! What great times life was for him.

One winter he spent driving school bus in Alberta, friending all his friends, fixing his rental properties, trying to tell his Mother what to do.

The next winter he went west to North Vancouver for a totally different perspective on life!

Each spring brought him back to the river, to the wilderness.

In 1982, I showed up at Kumsheen as a wannabee newbie river guide and we met and fell in love.  Two years later we left for Mexico in a truck and camper.  Returning to Victoria road weary, we rented out the truck and camper to travellers and lived as bohemians in a Fort Street bachelor pad for $100 a month more than the rental brought in!

We both walked to work at jobs we wondered if we wanted.

We made it up as we went along.  We laid in bed and told stories, dreamed and roared with laughter until we got up and went back to work.  1985 brought the Bellamy Road house and in 1986 we married, promising to do more of what we had been doing!

Then in June ’93, we bought 12 bare land acres.  Life changed.

We were now “school bus driver-farmers living in an RV” we took joy in saying!  We fully embraced brokering, growing and supplying large trees and shrubs for privacy hedging in the landscape.

With our team, we gave birth and grew Numa Farms Nursery.

Alan was thriving in his creative element.

He built, he solved problems, he taught young people,

then hired and inspired them.  We were proud to be able to certify some of them as red seal Journeymen Horticulturalists.

Thirteen years later, we moved out of our tiny home into the big house and invited his mother Dorothy and her caregivers to share our home for her final fifteen years.

We worked on through our pathways, enjoying the purpose, the creativity, the freedom and the fun of making it up our way.

Wearying of earthy work, Alan again returned to the world of water.

This time, he played in the water, he snorkeled and dove.

As a keen and fast student, he quickly earned his Master Divers Certification.  He swam on.  He thrived on night diving the Pelagic Magic and then he met his Manta Rays.  Oh the shivers of all joys, the inspirations, the spiritual awakenings!

Alan had his own approach and attitude to living.  And loving.

He developed his habits and went forward with joy, open and willing with enthusiasm, creativity, humour and honour!  Spiritual but not evangelical.

All the changing factors of environment, equipment, people, personalities, water, weather ~ he dealt with these individual differences with his own flair and style ~ hands-on, custom designed, creative.

Yet his pattern of approach, his overall philosophy, remained relatively constant.   He consistently kept growing forward with a strongly positive, responsible and honorable attitude.

He trusted himself to make it up as he went along.  He had the precision of a machine and the tenacity of a terrier. And he loved his fellow man with patience, kindness and compassion.

You are encouraged to read his Manta Ray story which is far too simple yet too complex to tell here.  He died on a bubble of joy because of his Amanda Manta Ray experience in Hawaii after chemo stopped.

After which it was home, then hospital three days later.
He radiated love and joy. He lit up the walls.
He was filled with gratitude and excitement.
He was willingly going forward.
Many visitors left feeling uplifted, comforted and reassured in their own various beliefs of the divine and the hereafter.

He prolonged life as long as he could with a positivity that awed and moved people. He has graduated.
He has traded his body for another dimension.
And yes, it started as tragic and sad.
Now, I am filled with gratitude for an end to his pain,
for the time we had and I miss him and

I know I haven’t even begun to miss him.

Thank you for your kindness, your thoughts,

your prayers, they support me.

Sharon Horbal for Alan Horbal