On Saturday, friends, family and members of the Tumbler Ridge community gathered in the Tumbler Ridge Curling arena to remember Doug Beale.
Beale passed away at the age of 62 from a heart attack while at work at the Brule Mine.
Beale was a former town councillor, a former employee and a 22 year veteran of the fire department.
Brian Marshall, Chief Operating Officer for Conuma says: “Doug’s sudden passing has been a shock to the Conuma family, and certainly to the entire community of Tumbler Ridge. His loss leaves an unfillable void in the hearts and lives of all those he touched. We extend our sincere condolences to Doug’s family and friends at this most difficult time.”
Rob Vandale, a long-time friend of Beale, gave the Eulogy for his friend. He says Beale will be missed. “I could not have asked for a better friend,” says Vandale.
While Beale spent time working as a mechanic, for the district and at the mine, he is best known as a member of the Tumbler Ridge Fire Department.
In his time with the department, Beale was awarded Firefighter of the year twice. Fire Chief Dustin Curry announced at the service that Beale had been posthumously awarded Tumbler Ridge Firefighter of the Year for a third time. “This is the first time in the history of the department that a firefighter has won the award three times.”
Curry says that Beale spent 3,173 hours training in his time on the department, and another 1,473 hours while responding to 1,805 emergency calls. “In a different context it would be akin to leaving your family without any notice at all for a little over six months.”
Rob Mackay served on council with Beale, and the two were fast friends, with a shared love of motorcycle touring. The two went on many adventures together, and, says Mackay, Beale used to almost always ride behind. “I figured out why,” he says. “He was a bit of shepherd, always looking out for everyone he was with. I have never met a more caring person. A more honest person.”
Don McPherson also served on the municipal council with Doug. “When we sat on council together we would frequently disagree,” says McPherson. “But we would talk about it. And sometimes I would sway him sometimes he would sway me and sometimes we would just disagree.” But, he says, Beale was always willing to talk and to listen and stand by his principles.
Pastor George Rowe, who also worked with Beale, got the phone call that someone had passed away at the mine. When he found out who it was, he says, he was caught off guard.
He was asked to come in and council other employees, and he spoke to many of them. “I heard phrases like life is so short,” says Rowe. “Someone said to me, ‘I have no answers.’ He was a good man.”
Rowe says the irony of life is that it always end in death. “That morning when Doug went to work, I’m sure he didn’t have marked on his calendar that day he would cease to be. He went then full of vim and vigour. He went there to work because he is a reliable person.”
Death, he says is mystical and a mystery, and it can be hard. “How do you celebrate life in the midst of death?” He says. “Today, we need to ask the question where do we go from here? When you walk out of here, what’s your plan? Do you give up? Do you lose hope and stop dreaming?
“No, no and a thousand times no. Never give up. Never stop dreaming. Enjoy every day. Hold on tenaciously to your hopes and dreams and plans. When the dreamer dies, the dream can live on. Through friends and family. Through the people in the fire department. Out of respect and love we can join together so the dreams of the dreamer can live on. Doug lives an accomplished life. Did he leave us too soon? Yes. He left us too early. He left us to early in the sense that we have lessons to learn in his absence, but even in his absence his dreams will live on. Doug will be missed by his family. By his friends. By the people at the fire department and the people of Tumbler Ridge and beyond.
“But missing him is a reminder to us to slow down and enjoy every moment. Today we mourn but today we celebrate. We celebrate a life that was well lived to the benefit of others. A life that loved and a love that lived.
“He will be missed.”
Doug was one of a number of current and former Tumbler Ridge residents to pass away over the last couple of weeks.
On May 29, Gord “Gordie” Harris passed away. Harris was a former foreman at Quintette Mine.
Bill Woods, a longtime resident of Tumbler Ridge passed away on May 30 after a extended battle with cancer.
The same day, Jason Unser— who lived in Tumbler Ridge for 18 years—died.
Unser was involved in building the Cascades Trail Project in 2006, and the Monkman Memorial Trail in the summer of 2008.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
