It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of our dad, grandpa, brother, uncle, and friend, Abraham Wiebe Giesbrecht, better known as Abe Giesbrecht. Abe was born in Steinbach on March 4, 1934 to Jacob and Elizabeth Wiebe Giesbrecht. Being born into a large poor family, Abe knew what it was like to be poor and having to work hard for a living. As a young one, in spite of cold weather and poor clothing, he and one of his brothers would go all the way from Steinbach to Marchand with a team of horses to get a load of wood. This they did repeatedly in order to earn enough money to buy groceries for the family. Later in life, while living in Winnipeg, he owned a trucking service called B.A.C.M. Again, he experienced hard work, carrying a lot of heavy drywall up to the second and third floors in newly constructed buildings. In 1978, he moved back to Steinbach and started working at Granny’s Poultry, where he worked for approximately 20 years. After that he worked on hog farms until June 2008. Abe was a very outgoing person who loved going to hockey games, bowling, bingo, and playing his favourite card game “Crib”. But one of our dad’s biggest passions was to get in contact and have a relationship with his only son Abe, who was taken from him at a young age. Unfortunately it never happened. In February 2008, Abe underwent some painful surgery which included a quadruple bypass and also some repairs to his heart. However, the surgeons were unable to do proper repairs to the main arteries. Since he had a weak and failing heart, weak lungs complicated his health problems all the more. It became very difficult for him to breathe in various environments. He also accumulated excess water in his kidneys. Abe had been in and out of the hospital numerous times during the past several months, and was admitted to the hospital for the last time on Wednesday, February 11 at 2:00 a.m. and passed away Sunday evening, February 15 with a joyful laugh in the presence of his daughter Johanne and his ex-wife Simone. The family was later informed that his sudden death was caused by an aneurism. He is survived by his two daughters: Linda Gerardy, Johanne and her fiancé Ron Unrau, and son Abe Rampl, grandchildren Vanessa and Julien, his ex-wife Simone, two sisters, Rose Walbank and Mary Harder, brother-in-law Frank Wiebe, sister-in-law Mary Giesbrecht. He was predeceased by his brothers: Jake and Neil; five sisters, Agatha (Sam Schroeder), Pauline (Charlie Lambert), Katie (Cornie Friesen), Susan Starr, and Dora Wiebe. Although Linda and Johanne both find it hard to let their dad go, Johanne will always cherish the last few moments as she and her dad were playing his favourite card game and saw him laughing – and then his life on earth ended. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, “Yes” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them.” (Rev 14:13) In loving memory, The family Viewing will be held Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. with a devotional at 7:30 p.m. at Birchwood Funeral Chapel, Steinbach. The funeral service will be held Friday, February 20, at 2:00 p.m. also at Birchwood Funeral Chapel, with interment at Memorial Cemetery, Steinbach. Donations in memory of Abe may be made to Gospel Chapel, Box 309, La Broquerie, MB R0A 1W0