Wade James Cooper of Prince Albert, SK, aged 44, died June 30th, 2011 when the airplane in which he, his brother Cam, and three others were passengers crashed while attempting to leave their fishing camp at Buss Lake in northern Saskatchewan.

Wade was the third child of Jim and Sharon Cooper, born and raised on a farm in Senlac, SK, part of a close-knit extended family. He attended Grades 1-9 in Senlac and finished high school in Unity, SK. As a boy, he loved the outdoors and enjoyed the pleasures of a country childhood: shooting gophers, showing a 4-H calf, playing hockey, dirt-biking with friends and water-skiing at Gravel Lake. He helped out on the farm from an early age. Days spent moving, sorting, and branding cattle were family affairs where everyone joined in. Before he finished high school, he worked as a welder in a local metal fabrication shop.

After Grade 12, Wade moved to Vancouver and completed a course in deep sea salvage where he learned to navigate the bottom of the ocean, repairing bridges and building fish farms. He also tried his hand at oilfield work, truck driving, used car sales, steer wrestling and bull-riding. He used to say he was the best bull-rider in the country for the first two seconds.

Wade loved to make a deal and in 1993, he found a way to combine his interest in sales with his farm background when he began buying and selling cattle. Before long, he’d worked his way up to become manager of Heartland Livestock Services, Prince Albert Branch, a position he held to the time of his passing. He acted as auctioneer at the market, rarely missing a sale and was the voice of market reports on radio in P.A. and Saskatoon. He was well-known for his one-liners, jokes usually made at the expense of the order buyers. He enjoyed visiting farms and many of the people he dealt with became his friends as well as his customers. He also farmed on the side, buying land near Senlac and Prince Albert and running his own herd of cows.

As much as he loved his work, Wade loved his family more. He and his wife Nadine settled on a farm near MacDowell and were soon blessed with three children: sons Bryn (6) and Sam (4) and daughter, Grace (2). Children brought out the best in Wade. He knew how to enter their world, pretending to be a bucking bull for them to ride, offering his bald head as a canvas for brightly coloured markers and cooking Kraft Dinner for breakfast. He taught them about cows and frogs and coyotes. His presence created chaos and laughter and Nadine was his quiet centre, his what-would-we-do-without-you-Nellie. Wade was a fun-loving uncle to his young nieces and nephews and a thoughtful mentor to the older children of family and friends.

Wade was not a perfect man; he’d hang up in the middle of phone conversations, he sent his relatives more cows than they ordered, he was almost never on time. These things seem small now, set beside the gifts he offered those he loved; the dinners he cooked, his impulsive generosity and above all, his ability to turn ordinary moments of daily life into stories so funny they brought tears to your eyes. He understood that laughter brought people together, making the good times better and hard times easier.

Wherever he is now, he is not far away. He is in the wind that blows through the grass where cattle graze and in the mist that rises from a northern lake. His voice is present in the stories we tell and in the echo of our laughter. He lives on in the faces of his beautiful children and in the hearts of those who love him.

Left behind to tell his awesome stories are his wife Nadine (Bryant) and their beautiful children, Bryn, Sam and Grace of Prince Albert, SK; parents Jim and Sharon (Mills) of Senlac, SK; sister Kelly Cooper and husband Hugh O’Neill and their children Casey and Anika of Belleisle Creek, NB; sister-in-law Glenice (Wagner) and children Maggy, Ruben and Sandy of Senlac, SK; brother Ash and wife Katrina (Marshall) and their son Jinks of Senlac, SK; mother and father-in-law Carol and Vern Bryant of Battleford, SK; sister-in-law Jodi Chmelnyk (Bryant) and husband Cory and their children Alex and Jorja of Murray Lake, SK.

Wade was predeceased by his sister Connie and joined in his passing by his brother Cam. He is lovingly remembered by uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews and many friends.

Memorial donations can be made to the Wade Cooper Children’s Trust or the Cam Cooper Children’s Trust, Unity Credit Union, Box 370, Unity SK, S0K 4L0.

• Date : 2011-06-30 06:00:00