Douglas Twigge was a father and a rancher from Andrew, Alta., who, despite not being an outwardly emotional person, cared deeply for the people around him. Whether it was with his family on the farm or his friends in the city, he showed them how he felt.
Douglas raised his son and daughter as a single dad, working alongside his children to run the daily operations of his beef and pork ranch. His daughter, Faye Macyk, says her father was a reserved and proud man who showed his care in his hard-working days and calm breakfast mornings.
“It didn’t come easy for him to say I love you or to give you any kind of praise,” Faye says. “That’s just not the kind of man he was.”
Died on December 12, 2020
Edmonton, AB
Age 86
On the ranch, Douglas butchered his stock, assigning Faye to wrap the pork for him, a job he didn’t entrust to anyone else.
“He told me I would be doing a good job,” she says. “I never doubted for one minute that he did love me.”
When Douglas retired to Edmonton, he loved spending time with his friends, from enjoying bacon and eggs at the 42nd Street A&W to grabbing a warm donut at the nearby Take 5 Coffee and Donut Shop on 118 Avenue.
In the final months of his life, despite suffering from both dementia and COVID-19, he was uncharacteristically emotional: he told Faye he loved her. She knew the feeling had always been there.
This story was first published in MacLean’s as part of a collaborative project with Canadian journalism schools to document the lives of people who have died from COVID-19. To learn more about the project and to read the other obituaries, click here.
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