Charlie passed away in his 90th year peacefully in his sleep, during a short stay in hospital in London Ontario.
He is predeceased by his wife Leona in 1968; his father William Henry Bowerbank; his mother Mary (Shepherd); his brothers Jack and Bruce. Charlie grew up on a farm on beautiful Cedar Springs Rd, Burlington ON.
He married Leona, moved to a nearby farm where they raised her 4 children, Ron, Barb, Connie and Reg from a previous marriage. Over the next few years, Marianne, Charlie, David and William were born. Charlie supplemented the farm income by working at the Oakville Ford plant.
After Leona passed, he turned the farm into a horse boarding operation. He quit the Ford plant and continued to spend his life doing what he enjoyed most - being involved with horses, doing farm maintenance and repairing equipment. After the boarding business Charlie worked on several horse farms in Ontario and in Western Canada.
Since his 3 sons and their families were living in Burns Lake, he moved to Burns Lake in 1997 with his daughter Marianne and her son Stuart. Charlie loved family, farming, horses, fixing equipment, hockey, bowling and airplanes. So it was no surprise that while living at Baker Airport to keep watch over it, he soon turned that into a full time job, being a most friendly and dependable maintainer of the snowplowing, grass cutting, equipment, greeting planes and pilots.
Charlie was a man with a great disposition who put laughter into much of his day. He was always jovial and won the respect and friendship of many. He followed his dreams across the country while being a positive influence on everyone he met. Charlie was not a materialistic man but rather enjoyed people, animals, working and checking in on family to see if they were alright and happy. His experiences, determination, persistence, strength, good health and never ending sense of humour allowed him to always manage to keep things fixed and running. He was a good source of advice and had a way of offering it by saying, “Well if it were me . . and I'm not perfect but . . ”
He moved back to southern Ontario and spent his last years with friend and partner Barbara Crumb (Turner) and stepdaughter Tammy. Charlie was very proud of his family and will be missed by his children, Marianne (Bob), Charlie (Becky), David (Barb), William (Edith); grandchildren Mark, Mel, Charlene, Stuart, Shane, Grant, Thomas, Nicole, Kirk; great grandchildren Jacob, Amanda, Adelyn, Curtis, Alyssa and Elijah.
Charlie expressed a request for no funeral service. As expressions of sympathy, memorial donations can be made to The Canadian Cancer Society or the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada.