Walter Megley

Recently a church member at my mom's church died. I mention this because this very nice older man was also someone I knew from years back when I was doing the volunteer job of Zone Captain for the Alberta Lung Association for a few years.

I started out as a canvasser and eventually they asked me to do a Zone. It was when I took it on that I met Mr Megley. This was probably about 10 or 15 years ago already. At this time he was already older (he was just a few years - about 5 actually - older than my mom).

Because of his age and some health problems he eventually had to retire from service to the Lung Association. However, while he was a canvasser, he was not just one of the best he was the best. Inevitably people would cancel on me at the last minute, but not Mr. Megley.

In fact, I could always count on him until the end to take a second route to help me out with the drop outs. Not only that but he also was the one canvasser that I could count on to bring in a good amount of donations. It was hard to get donations for most, but he had a special touch.

Not only was he someone I could count on with the annual canvas but as I found out at his memorial service he had a number of interesting hobbies that kept him busy. He apparently kept bees at one time & was a fisherman who even wrote a lengthy, interesting poem about it.

I will miss his smiling face and pleasant greetings when I go to the occasional event at my mom's church where I used to see him and his equally nice wife. Actually, it has been awhile since I and others were able to experience this as he had a incapacitating stroke months before his death.

Fortunately for those who knew him both well or like me in small part he lived a good long life managing to live to the ripe old age of 89. Most of that time thankfully he was healthy and quite active as evidenced by his helping me out. Goodbye Mr. Megley.

Carmen