Crawford, Ernest Oscar – On July 29, 2023 we said our goodbyes to Ernest Oscar Crawford; husband, brother, father, uncle, cousin, grandfather, and friend. At the time of his death, he was vacationing with his family in his second favourite place in the world, Inverness, Nova Scotia.
Born in 1940 to Edward and Pearl Crawford, Ernie spent most of his life not far from his birthplace of Stewiacke. In his younger years he worked in forestry with his father, worked the diamond drills for Logan Brothers, then spent much of his young adult life driving the roads as a striker, then driver for Stan Hanes, trucking freight to and from Ontario, and Bigham Movers in Ontario. He drove for nine years for Curtis Fisher, picking up milk from local area farms where he spent a great many mornings chatting up farmers and their families for as long as it took to empty the tank before heading on to the next farm. His afternoons were spent delivering the milk to dairies across the Maritime provinces.
Ernie retired after 23 years at Lafarge Canada’s Cement plant in Brookfield, where he worked his way up from labourer to lab technician, where he spent a great many days tormenting Squeak until his retirement.
Ernie was an avid sportsman in his younger days, enjoying fishing, hunting, baseball, hockey, broomball, curling, and darts. He was a volunteer firefighter in Brookfield and Stewiacke and was a member of the Emergency Response Team at the Cement Plant. He was a long-time member of the Stewiacke Legion, after which Ernie and Louise relocated to Afton Station with Anita.
Ernie was a quiet man much of the time, preferring to think and reflect than to waste words. That said, for someone who preferred the solitude of home and family, the man could make a new friend in an empty parking lot, and he loved doing it. The friendships he made since moving to Afton were as great a source of joy for him as they were for those fortunate enough to know him.
Ernie had a wee bit of a mischievous side to him, and most days were spent tormenting and tantalizing, stirring the pot, and doing whatever he could to make people smile. He did however spend a fair amount of time in the corner and was sent to the basement on more than one occasion, which might have been his goal in the first place so he could watch baseball, golf, or hockey, once his chores were done.
Ernie’s big heart, the twinkle in his eye, his mischievous grin, and his warm embrace will be fondly and forever remembered by his wife of fifty years, Louise (MacDonald); sister, Edna (Dean); brother, Roy; sister-in-law, Anita (Delorey); daughters, Debbie, Wendy (Bill), and Cindy (Trevor); and his son, Paul (Jill); granddaughter, Lindsay (Steve); grandsons, Eric, Andre (Melanie), Cullen, and Tanner; and the newest member of the family, great-granddaughter, Vada Jane; and his nieces and nephews, their children and grandchildren. And finally, everyone else who had the pleasure to know Ernie Crawford.
He was predeceased by his parents; sisters, Joyce, Edith, Gloria, Helen, Dorothy; brother, Danny; son-in-law, Everette; several nieces, great nieces and nephews; and several brothers and sisters-in-law.
A small graveside service will be held Aug 26th at 1 pm in Pine Grove Cemetery, Stewiacke East followed by a storytelling session afterwards at the Stewiacke Legion.
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