Gilbert L'Heureux

Gilbert L’Heureux was born on December 16th, 1945, in Victoria, British Columbia. He was born to his mother, Grace, and father, Noël, and was the oldest of his six siblings. He has two brothers, Dave and Eugene, and four sisters, Ida, Angele, Dorilla, and Agnes. Gilbert’s father worked in the military, and once the war ended in 1945, he began looking for some land to purchase. In 1946, his dad purchased some land in Ste. Amelie where their family moved. While growing up at home with his family, Gilbert spoke French but later learned English when he began school. He attended a rural school called LeCoq, in Ste. Amélie, which was walking distance from his farm. Gilbert did not enjoy school and would have preferred hanging out with his cousin, Lucien, and the Grandbois brothers on the farm. It did not matter what Gilbert and his friends were riding, as long as it was something. They enjoyed riding bikes, cars, and horses, especially. While growing up on the farm, Gilbert had a collie dog, Tippy, he remembered very fondly as being a great cattle dog. Gilbert did attend school up to Grade Eight. At the age of sixteen, he went to Winnipeg to work for the construction company his father was working for. He also had various other jobs over the years: he went up north to Kelsey where he built facilities for the hydro dams, worked on the airport in The Pas, and drove gravel truck.

In 1970, Gilbert met the love of his life, Gisèle, at a wedding. Although they knew each other growing up, they reconnected and started dating. Gilbert was working in Winnipeg at the time for Motor Coach Industries, building bus parts, and Gisèle was attending university. Gilbert and Gisèle married on February 19th, 1972, and moved to Ontario shortly after, where Gilbert worked logging for his uncle, Frank Lecomte. There, Gilbert and Gisèle started their family, welcoming Crystal in 1974 and Michel in 1976. Gilbert and Gisèle then moved back to Manitoba in March of 1977 and later welcomed Joel in 1981. While raising their family together, Gilbert worked as a mechanic and then as a bus driver. He drove bus from 1990 to 2008, and described it as being his favourite job. Gilbert was part of the Knights of Columbus for many years, Citizens on Patrol, was a volunteer ambulance driver prior to them having paid positions and drove the Handi-Van. While being a part of the Knights of Columbus, Gilbert organized a snowmobile rally, which he was extremely proud of, and considered it to be one of his greatest accomplishments. Gilbert had many hobbies, snowmobiling being one of his favourites. He also loved camping with his family and one of their favourite spots to go was Manipogo or in the Duck Mountains at Blue Lakes. Included in his hobbies were boating, fishing, hunting, and welding. One of Gilbert’s favourite vacations was visiting Alberta and British Columbia with Gisèle for four weeks with the camper. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2002, Gilbert continued to live his life to the absolute fullest and was able to live an active life until 2018 when he moved to the Dr. Gendreau Personal Care Home. Despite his mobility challenges, Gilbert was always able to crack a joke, tease his family and the staff, enjoy his snacks, and make sure that this family and friends knew how much he loved them and how proud he was of them.

Gilbert was grateful for his beautiful, supportive wife and his fond memories. Gilbert enjoyed watching hockey, especially his favourite team is the Winnipeg Jets. He also enjoyed playing cards and card bingo and visits from his friends and family. Gilbert was proud to be a husband, a father, and a grandfather. Gilbert is blessed with seven grandchildren, Peyton, Hannah, Sophie, Nora, Oliver, Simon and Kane and one greatgrandson, Callan, and had said that his favourite name was Pepère. He looked forward to Christmas each year for the family gathering that takes place. Gilbert’s favourite foods were anything Italian, especially spaghetti and meat sauce, fried chicken, and deer steak. He loved when Gisèle brought him some fresh cooked deer steak from home. Gilbert enjoyed most food, and would eat anything, except “f****ng green beans.” Gilbert always said that the best day of his life was his wedding day, marrying the love of his life, Gisèle. Words of Wisdom from Gilbert: use your vacation time and live your life to the fullest. To Gilbert, there was no such thing as vacaying at home. He always enjoyed spending his vacation time being a social butterfly, meeting new people and spending time experiencing life with his friends and family, the people he loved the most.

Gilbert is predeceased by his parents, Grace and Noël, father-in-law, Pierre Desjardins, mother-in-law, Lucie Desjardins, brothers-in-law, David Albright, David Tereck, Ovide Delaurier, and Gilles Delaurier, sister-in-law, Lizette Desjardins, and his good friends, Lucien, Hervé, Léo, and André.

Gilbert leaves to mourn his passing, his devoted wife, Gisèle; three children, Crystal (Rémi), Michel (Kerry), and Joël (Amber); seven grandchildren, Peyton (Samuel), Hannah, Sophie, Nora, Oliver, Simon, and Kane; and great-grandchild, Callan; as well as his six siblings, Eugene (Marguerite), Ida (Emile), Angèle, David (Lys-Marie), Dorilla (Howie), and Agnes (Curtis), and siblings-in-law, Daniel, Michel (Marina), Marie, Adèle (Layne), Pierre, Valerie (Clarence), Lucie, Karen, numerous nieces and nephews, and many close friends.

The family would like to thank the staff at the Dr. Gendreau Personal Care Home for taking care of Gilbert for the last 8 years, as well as the staff at the Ste. Rose General Hospital who cared for Gilbert in his final weeks.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Activities Department of the Dr. Gendreau Personal Care Home in Ste. Rose.

Prayers were offered on Saturday, July 18, 2026 at 9:00 am from the Ste. Rose de Lima Roman Catholic Church in Ste Rose du Lac.

A Funeral Mass was held for Joseph on Saturday, July 18, 2026 at 9:30 am from the Ste. Rose de Lima Roman Catholic Church in Ste Rose du Lac with Fr Moise Adossou officiating.  

Interment followed in the Ste. Amelie Cemetery.