Leon Lepla

Leon Alphonse Lepla passed away peacefully on Dec. 31, 2019 at the Dr. Gendreau Personal Care Home at the age of 81 years old.  

He was born December 3, 1938 at Boiteau’s Nursing Home in Ste. Rose du Lac, MB to parents Levine and Albina Lepla. 

Leon was raised on his family’s farm east of Ste. Rose du Lac, and attended a small one-room country school a few miles away. He was part of a family of seven children with five sisters and one brother: Bernadette, Celina, Rita, Annette, Cecile, Charles.

Following his education, Leon worked on many construction jobs and for Britsky Building Movers. During his employment doing construction, Leon met and fell in love with the love of his life Cecile. On November 17, 1962, in Notre Dame du Lourdes, MB, Leon married Cecile Faucher and they moved to Ochre River, MB.  Two years later they moved back to Ste. Rose where Leon followed his interest in agriculture and purchased the family farm in 1964. During their marriage they had three children: Ronald, Kenneth, and Shelley

Leon operated and maintained his family farm until his placement into the Dr. Gendreau Personal Care Home in January 2016.

Leon’s loves were his family and friends whom he enjoyed spending time with. He was musically talented and learned how to play the accordion by ear.

He enjoyed hunting, fishing,  and even built his own fish shack, and as a younger man he enjoyed curling and recently watching curling on TV.  

He enjoyed working on his farm, fixing and building machinery such as 5th wheel trailers and bale movers. Leon sure was Mr. Fix-it being resourceful and creative.

As a family, they enjoyed travelling and visiting Hawaii, Texas, Florida, Idaho, BC, and several trips to casinos which included going to Las Vegas 3 times and also a vacation on a cruise ship.

While vacationing on the Oregon coast with his family, Leon enjoyed seeing the sites and flying kites with his grandchildren.  

Many nights were spent playing cards with friends and relatives often taking their money! He spent many hours on the computer playing hunting games and POGO site and Texas Hold’em.  If the computer was not working correctly, he would tell us to get it fixed no matter the time day or night. 

Dad built many decks as Shelley moved numerous times with the RCMP, and when Ronald purchased his house, Dad was right there to get it move-in ready condition which included building another deck. While Dad and Mom made trips to Boise visiting Kenneth, Kelly and the boys, he built a carport for storing Kenneth’s jet boat. During travels to Boise, Dad and Mom spent time fishing, touring and enjoying time spent with their grandchildren (Kevin and Hayden).

Dad wasn’t a fan of surprises and practical jokes. When Ronald and Kenneth wanted to help their Dad out during Spring seeding, Dad would use a screw driver to break open the flax seed bags one-by-one to fill the seed drill before going back out into the field. So Ronald and Kenneth helped their dad out by breaking the next 40 or 50 bags of flax seed to save him time seeding!  Boy was Dad mad!  Thank goodness Mom came to their defense and calmed Dad down. We sure learnt our lesson that day. 

Shelley too tried Dad’s patience one day and as a joke told him she backed the baler too far under the machine shed and bent it. He said that you should have left it outside as his blood pressure went up!  She knew then not to joke with Dad again, at least not for awhile. Later on Dad himself bent the baler backing it into the machine shed. 

Leon was pre-deceased by his parents, Levine and Albina; sister, Bernadette (brother  in-law Charles Flower); sister, Celina (brother in-law Nick Britsky); sister, Rita, sister, Annette (brother in-law Harold Erlendson), sister Cecile (brother-in-law Ron Hladun).

Leon leaves behind his wife Cecile of 57 years of marriage, his three children Ronald, Kenneth (Kelly), his grandsons Kevin and Hayden, Shelley and Melinda, his brother Charles (Vivian) and brother in-law Armand Gobillot, along with many nephews and nieces.

A celebration of Leon's life was held on Sunday, January 5, 2020 at 2:00 pm in the Ste. Rose Community Centre in Ste. Rose du Lac.  

Should family and friends so desire, donations may to the Alzheimer’s Society of Manitoba in memory of Leon.  

The Lepla family would like to extend a huge thank-you to Dr. Blais and staff at the Dr. Gendreau Personal Care Home for taking such wonderful and compassionate care of Leon.

You made our family feel right at home from the first day we arrived.  We knew Dad was in good hands when we couldn't be there. Thank you to all those in attendance for helping us say good-bye to Leon, he will be greatly missed and forever in our thoughts.

Our sincere thanks,

The Lepla family.

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