Wednesday, August 24, 2016
I am writing on behalf of myself and a couple other boyhood friends of Chet’s from St. Albert, namely; Mike Bratke (Houston, TX) and Adriaan Dehek (Vancouver, BC). We came across Chet’s obituary early last week and were very sorry to hear of his untimely passing. Although we were very close friends during our primary school years, right up to grade twelve, as often occurs, we drifted apart after that. Having said that, we all have very fond memories of Chet during these formative years and growing up on Geneva Crescent (I lived at 47 Geneva - and my parents still do). Those include; • Walking to and from elementary and Junior High school and back with Cam Hite, • Playing music that was often influenced by Ron (Chet’s older brother’s taste in music) in his basement bedroom where he had a high end stereo, • Riding bikes - 10 speeds were the rage and I recall Chet somehow had an orange one, • Skiing and making jumps on the hills out the back of the Nalewajek`s house. In one instance, I recall making a ski jump over the fence in the backyard using boards. The first trial of this resulted in a minor collision with the house as we failed to calculate the necessary room need to stop from the enormous flight path we obtained from the jump • Or, driving around in the old Sun-bug that we all often piled into to get to school and back or for nights on the town (thanks Laurie). I also recall mechanically working on that Beetle to keep it going or to fix a few dents (Ok perhaps couple of large ones) or to put in a bitchin stereo which we played way too loudly. These initial experiences with car mechanics are ones I still use today when keeping my current vehicles operating. Mike and I also remember working with Chet’s dad and Ron. Firstly in the garage on Geneva when the cabinet business was starting up and then in NW Edmonton when the business got larger. To this day we both still know how to use a router on wood and can recall the pungent smell of the glues we used to bind wood or place arbrite of countertops. Of course the pay we received helped us stay mobile with our first cars and also provided some beer money. As boys do, we also got into our fair share of mischief, the vast majority being relatively benign and in the long run helped us grow up to better people. As mentioned, shortly after that we lost track. We understand Chet moved north to the NWT and we too went our separate ways all pursuing careers and lives. I had the opportunity to see Ron a couple of times at ACR events and although I did reach out to Chet with Ron’s help we never connected. Ironically last March when Mike, Adrian and I were together we again search Chet out via the internet but were only able to find that he was living somewhere in Kelowna. Of course we are all now regret that we did not pursue this further. For one thing were not aware of was that he had two daughters. Anyway, we thought it appropriate to reach out to provide our condolences to the family and pass on a few memories of our boyhood friend. If there is anything the family might be able to share with us about his all to short life we would certainly appreciate it. Sincerely Bob Demulder RPF Regional Vice President Nature Conservancy of Canada | Alberta Region #890, 105 12 Ave. SE | Calgary, AB T2G 1A1 T: 403.515.6988 | C: 403.613.6460 | Toll free:1.877.262.1253 bob.demulder@natureconservancy.ca | www.natureconservancy.ca/ab Think Green. Consider the environment before printing this email.
