{"id":23909,"date":"2019-05-31T13:13:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23909"},"modified":"2019-05-31T13:13:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:13:33","slug":"front-porch-perspective-clifford-gambell-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-clifford-gambell-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Clifford Gambell \u2013 Remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Stephen Somerville<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those loyal readers you will recall\nin my last column that I provided an update on Cliff and Pat Gambell after I\nreceived an e-mail from their daughter Andrea. I had interviewed Cliff and Pat\nfor this column back in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea reached out to let me know that\nher dad passed away on February 27 at the young age of 99 and that her Mom had\npassed away in August 2014, after having been married for 71, yes, 71 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meeting\nAndrea\u2019s parents has been one of the great pleasures of this volunteer\ncolumnist position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cliff was a\ngreat story teller and you could tell how much he adored Pat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They both loved\nlong and fulfilling lives surrounded by the ones they loved, which I think is\nall that one can hope for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is some of the brief\nexcerpts from the eulogies that Andrea and Cliff\u2019s grandson David gave at the\nfuneral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Andrea:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you share a lifetime of\nmemories in a few minutes? Of course, the answer is you can\u2019t but I wanted to\nspeak today to let you know a little bit about the wonderful man that was my\nDad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was born to Mom and Dad after they\nwere married for nearly twenty years. They had two teenage daughters but, no, I\nwas not an accident!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing into the family in what I\nconsider the \u2018sweet spot\u2019 had its advantages. Thanks to my sisters, these parents\nwere well broken in and it seems that I got away with a lot more than they ever\ndid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI also spent a lot of time with Dad.\nAround the time I was born Dad became a mechanic and opened his station on\nAvenue Road and Bedford Park. I spent many Saturday and Sundays and summers\nworking there with Dad. Back then they did not have any child labour laws and\nat 10 or 11, I was out pumping gas and checking oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMom and Dad were married for 71 years.\nAs you can imagine there were times when they had a tiff or two and as I recall\nit, it was Dad that usually had to make the first move. He would walk up to\nMom, put his arm around her, and say, \u2018Give me a kiss and tell me you\u2019re\nsorry.\u2019 Mom could never resist that and the disagreement was over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From David:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, Grandad\nwas not just great at building a business and fixing cars with military\nprecision; he could build and fix just about anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe built the\ngarage at their home on St. Germaine, he built and finished an amazing rec\nroom, he could shingle a roof, and he cut the grass with such attention to\ndetail that Pat used to comment that he measured each individual blade of grass\nto make sure they were all the same height.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter\nretirement, Grandad and Mother spent 20 great winters in Florida.  They were like teenagers in their retirement\ncommunity and we all loved to visit and we all have great memories of their\nwonderful home that was flawlessly wall-papered and it had the most pristine\ngarage ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Pat\npassed away, Grandad was devastated. He never imagined that she would be the\nfirst to go.  But since that time, all of\nhis great qualities have been on display. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe remained a\ntrue gentleman. At the retirement home he had all his meals with three ladies,\nall named Mary. He would help the three Marys to their seats at every meal and\nline up their walkers for them at the end of every meal.  And he would regale them with great stories\nto keep them entertained at all times \u2013 his entire life he was a great\nstoryteller, never missing a detail, and that quality stayed true to the end of\nhis days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrandad had a\npositive outlook on life and it was evident right to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe told us he\nwould make it to 100. We had a 99th<\/sup> birthday celebration for him on\nDecember 22. At the end of the party he said, \u2018Well, I hate to have to tell you\nthis but you are all going to have to do this again next year.\u2019 His new goal\nwas to make it to 105.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe will live\nforever in our hearts as he was kind, caring and a true gentleman. He was\ndelighted to see his eight great grandchildren, seven grandchildren, three\nsons-in-law and three daughters come to visit.  They were all very special\nto him and he loved to give and get a big hug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I end this column with the final\nmoving, heart-felt words from Andrea:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDad you\u2019re back with Mom now. I\nimagine you wrapped your arms around her, gave her a kiss and said sorry I\u2019ve\nbeen a bit, but I was trying to finish what I started and get to 100 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDad, we will miss you always, love you\nforever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlways in our hearts until we are\ntogether again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen can be contacted at stephengsomerville@yahoo.com<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville For those loyal readers you will recall in my last column that I provided an update on Cliff and Pat Gambell after I received an e-mail from their daughter Andrea. I had interviewed Cliff and Pat for this column back in 2007. Andrea reached out to let me know that her dad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6dD","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 05:17:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}