A Husband and Father Remembered

My Dad Dale Zwicker was my hero. He worked at Dalhousie where he made a lot of things for the university and he made parts for special buildings. Some things he made are the Dalhousie eagle crest, he helped design and make the rock climbing wall at Dalhousie, he made the roof on one of the dollar stores, and if you ever go to Dalhousie you'll see a lot of my dad's work. Dalhousie put his name on some of the things he made and probably in 100 years you'll still see his name in Dalhousie. My dad showed me how to do lots of things. He showed me how to use a pocket knife and he showed me how to fish. The third time I went fishing with him I caught a trout and I wanted to name it floppy. Every summer we went to the same campground because my dad's cousins lived by the campground so his brothers and sisters and himself went to the campground. My dad had a lot of brothers and sisters. My dad made a tree house in our front yard, he helped us make a camp in our woods, and he made houses and he told me there were flies as big as your thumb nail. He helped make a lot of people happy because of the houses he made. My dad told me a lot of things about when he was a kid. When he was a kid he made skateboards for himself and would make bows and arrows with his brothers, and he went fishing. When he was a teenager he was tall and skinny. He went fishing with his dad and caught a three foot trout. When he was is high school a bully kept on bullying everyone but when he tried to pick on my dad he stuck up for himself. My dad made rafts with his friends and took them out on ponds and lakes. One time when they were out on a private pond a ranger started coming so the had to jump off. Luckily they made it to shore and they didn't stop running until they were home. Since my dad taught me a lot of things I can use a pocket knife by myself and I can fish. He was the best dad ever.

This was my sons assignment for school in grade 4

My husband Dale Zwicker passed away Sept. 20, 2005 at age 47 with pancreas cancer. Suffering with bad stomach pain we made our way to the emergency room never crossing our minds what we were going to hear. I will never forget those words, you have cancer is what the doctor told us that night. They ran some more test and the next day we were told the cancer was spread from the pancreas to the liver, both kidneys and both lungs and his whole chest wall cavity. The Jan before he had a cat scan on his back because it had been bothering him and the cat scan showed nothing. My first reaction was we can fight this together but then our hope was faded when he was told there was no treatment option and he should go home and spend time with his children (11 and 9 at the time) and family. The next big thing was how do you tell the children so they understand when you cant understand it all yourself. The weeks following were difficult. Dale passed away peacefully 10 weeks Sept 20, 2005 after first being diagnosed. Since his death I have heard of so many others being touch by this type of cancer and it is hitting younger and younger people all the time. Research for this type of caner is very essential especially early diagnoses.