Larry Berg
February 6, 1942 ~ August 2, 2013
Larry passed away at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital on August 2, 2013 at the age of seventy one. He was predeceased by his infant son, Robert in 1966, his father, Carl in 1982 and his mother, Adah in 1995. He is survived by his brothers: Dennis (Ruth) of Parksville, Ken (Betti) of Brookmere; by nieces: Carol Campbell (Richard) of Brentwood Bay, Susan Brooks (Troy) of Port Moody, Corrine Berg of Courtenay; and nephews, Randy Berg (Debra) of Vancouver and Brock Berg (Karen) of Courtenay.
About five years ago Larry was diagnosed with the horrible and incurable disease myelofibrosis. In his last few years, and particularly the last few months, he endured unbearable pain and suffering due to symptoms and complications from this disease. In spite of his family’s pleading he refused to be admitted to the hospital until he became so weak he had no choice but to go, only two weeks before he died. He probably knew his time had come, but he would never admit how ill he really was.
Larry was born in New Westminster, BC but lived most of his life on Vancouver Island in the communities of Sayward, Courtenay, Port Alberni, Schooner Cove, Errington and Nanaimo. In the early 1960’s he worked as a government log scaler up and down the coast before switching to the more lucrative occupation of timber faller for MacMillan Bloedel’s Sproat Lake Division in Port Alberni. He felled trees for about ten years until he had to quit because of White Finger Disease, a variation of Raynaud’s Disease which often afflicts fallers and others who work with vibrating machinery. He then tried selling real estate, but was not too successful due to slow markets and a tendency to value honesty above profit. He was not above telling his clients that this was not the right house for them.
Early in his life Larry became interested in flying and in the mid 1960’s he obtained his private pilots license at Comox. Over the years, he built two kit airplanes in his garage and restored a crashed Cessna 172 which he flew to the big airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. At various times he belonged to flying clubs in Port Alberni, Qualicum and Nanaimo where he spent many hours talking about flying with fellow pilots and taking part in flying events. For several years he drove from Nanaimo to Cassidy airport almost very day to hang out with his flying friends, until a few weeks before he passed away. He realized that he was too weak to safely drive that far.
Larry was married several times, but spent much of his life living by himself as a bachelor. He always had the love and support of his family, but in later years his favorite pastime was shooting the breeze with his second family, his Nanaimo flying buddies.
The suffering is over. We hope he is now flying with the angels.
No funeral is planned, but a family memorial may be planned later in the summer. Condolences may be offered at telfordn@shaw.ca
Telfords Nanaimo
(250)591-6644