A Tribute to Florian

Florian Joseph Montès passed away peacefully at the Rosthern Hospital on August 7, 2019, six months to the day short of his 100th birthday.  Florian, the third in a family of nine children, spent his first two years in Espérance (south of Prud’homme) before his family moved to St-Front where he spent his formative years.  In 1929, his father died leaving his mother with eight young children under the age of 15 just as the Depression Years began.  In 1941, he was called to serve in the Canadian Army during WWII.  He managed to dodge bullet and bombs while in the trenches of Normandy, Belgium, Holland and Germany.  Not so lucky when he returned to Canada.  After his marriage to Renée Bertoncini in 1946 and the birth of their first child in 1947, he broke a leg while playing softball.  In 1951, with four young children and a fifth on the way, he got his leg caught in the power takeoff of his tractor and spent a couple of years in and out of hospitals.  (He should have stayed in the army!)  With help from neighbors and relatives, he and Renée continued farming and raised 11 children.  No small feat!  Soon after retirement, they moved to the hamlet of St-Front and built a new house.  In 1993, they relocated, first to Bellevue then to Domrémy.  When Renée died in 1998, Florian continued living in Domrémy until 2017 when he made Bellevue’s ‘Le Foyer’ his home.  Besides his family, Florian’s passions in life were his dogs, his pipe, any and all musical instruments he could play by ear, reading and playing cards.  In the final years of his life, he became a ‘collector’, especially a collector of quips and VHS videos.  He took to feeding birds, even in summer, and he helped his friend Robert work Le Foyer’s garden.  He was mobile and alert to the very end when his heart gave up.  He will be celebrating his 100th birthday in heaven. The family thanks, in a special way, the staff at the Bellevue Care Home and the Rosthern Hospital for the care given to Florian these past two years.  The mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at the Roman Catholic Church in St. Front, SK on Tuesday, August 13, 2019, at 1:00 p.m. with Rev. Fr. Charles Nweze as celebrant.  Interment followed in the St. Front Roman Catholic Cemetery.  If you wish to donate in memory of Florian, please give to the Bellevue Care Home and/or for the new Rosthern Hospital.  Funeral arrangements were entrusted to Marc Blondeau of Kushneryk Funeral Service, Wakaw, SK, (306) 233-4403

• Date : 2019-08-07
• Location : Rosthern, SK