Lorne was the one of the first people in Saskatchewan to have open heart surgery (in 1961).

Lorne’s eulogy - published online at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens website, as there was only a very small private service due to the CoVid-19 pandemic going on at the time of the funeral:

Lorne Fairburn BoyleJuly 4, 1939 - May 10, 2020Lorne Fairburn Boyle, beloved husband of Mrs. Rita Boyle of Saskatoon, passed away at the Lutheran Sunset Home on May 10, 2020 at the age of 80 years. He was the loving father of: Lorne Curtis Boyle of Saskatoon, Kevin James (Jen) Boyle and grandchildren Morgan, Mannix and Molly, of Sherwood Park, AB, and Lorraine Audrey (Maurice) Cameron and grandchildren Sam and Lily, of Port Moody, BC. He will also be lovingly remembered by sisters Dorothy (Herman) Wagner of Saskatoon and Maxine (Leo) Tomyn of Saskatoon, as well as numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. He was predeceased by his parents, Thomas and Edna Boyle, brothers Harvey and Raymond Boyle, sister Hazel Anderson, sister-in-law Elaine Boyle, and brother-in-law Lawrence Anderson.

Lorne was born in Kelvington, SK, the fourth of six children. He grew up on the family farm north of Lintlaw, where he attended the Saskatchewan Valley country school through grade 9, sometimes having to take the horses to school if there was inclement weather. His younger sister Dorothy remembers that sometimes the horses would find a large puddle in the road, and they would stop to drink. Neither Lorne or Dorothy could get the horses started again until they had their fill, so sometimes these trips took awhile. Being the eldest of the second wave of children (the three oldest were at least six years older than Lorne), he often was assigned to bring in the firewood in the winter, on a small sleigh. As some of his uncles were involved with a logging operation north of Lintlaw, he made some trails around the yard, over hills, etc. to make it more interesting, and would pretend to be working for the big logging operations. Of course, there were sometimes accidents that happened up north, so Lorne would occasionally tip the sleigh over (an “accident”), and have to reload the wood. This whole process would sometimes take until dark before he made it to the house with the wood, and the wood would be soaked from being dumped in the snow. Not the most efficient way of doing things... but much more fun!

For grade 10, Lorne went to Lintlaw School in town. This was far enough away from his farm home that he stayed at his uncle and aunt’s place (Atwell and Etta) in town, and he hung out with his cousin Barry, who helped teach him to ride a bike. It was during this time he was also in cadets. It was around this time that he started having problems with stamina, tiring out more quickly than other kids. Why this was happening would be discovered later. In September, 1957, Lorne was helping his uncle Lawrence out by driving a grain truck, along with another teenager he had just met. There was an accident that knocked Lorne out, and killed the other fellow. When he came to, the truck was on it’s side, and he had to run to a neighbors house across a field to get help. After the accident, Lorne was experiencing back pain. In 1960, Lorne, his parents, and youngest sister Maxine, moved to Saskatoon, under the recommendation of brothers Harvey and Ray, as the farmwork was getting to be too much for the four of them to keep up with (Lorne and his mom were both having health issues). He eventually went to a doctor in 1961, where it was discovered that he had dislocated his neck in the accident, and his actual back was fine. The back pain did not go away after his neck was fixed, and then it was found that he had double pneumonia, which he went to the hospital to get treated for. While in the hospital, they discovered that he had had a heart defect since birth, that was the cause of him getting tired out easily. Lorne underwent corrective heart surgery (one of the first of it’s kind in Saskatchewan) in September of 1961. It took a lot of strength and resilience to get through all of this!

In Saskatoon, Lorne met Rita Young through his niece Diana, who knew Rita from them taking the school bus together back on the farm. They started dating, and married on June 25, 1966 at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church out in the country, not far from where they grew up. Back in Saskatoon, they attended Holy Cross Lutheran Church, and bought a house, where they raised their 3 kids (except for a 3 year sojourn to Grande Prairie, AB, where Lorne ran a drywalling business). After returning to Saskatoon in 1974, Lorne did carpentry and drywalling before retiring in the early 2000’s (several times). Lorne rebuilt the basement at their house from scratch (which was just some wood shelves in a completely open cement floor and walls). Kevin remembers himself and Curtis trying to help dad nailing together wall studs. Where Dad could get the nail hammered in 1 or two strokes, Kevin would take closer to twenty, and that included having to straighten out the nail a few times (Curtis was even worse than this). Kevin assumed that every dad did their own renovations back then. He and Curtis also helped with a re-shingling project; dad did the house, and the boys did a small shed. Guess who was faster?

By the time Lorne had the basement done, there was a laundry room with a cool storage room under the stairs, a large bedroom, a rumpus room done in a Spanish style with dimmer lights in arches, and a small bar with sliding doors for the bartender to hand things out of. Curtis thought that the dimmer lights in the arches looked really cool, and pretended they were Star Trek transporters. Rita remembers an amusing incident when Lorne had started working on the basement; at one point, all 3 kids were downstairs “helping” him (translation: getting somewhat in the way), when she called downstairs to have Lorne bring some meat upstairs for supper from the freezer. Lorne finished the bit he was doing, and then came upstairs, with the kids following behind. When mom asked where the meat was, Lorne let out a sheepish “Ah, sh*t!”. Then, one after the other, all 3 kids repeated “Ah, sh*t!”. Rita remembers by the time Kevin said the last one (and he had a smile on his face as he knew he wasn’t supposed to say this, but figured since both Curtis and Lorraine already had, he was safe), she couldn’t contain herself anymore and burst out laughing.

In the spring of 1995, Lorne and Rita, and for the first few years, Lorraine, moved to their condominium. It was shortly after moving there that Lorne had a horrific accident while working on the outside of the Cave Restaurant; while 20 feet above the ground, the scaffolding he was standing on collapsed, and fell to the pavement, which caused several injuries. By far the worst was breaking both wrists; one into several pieces, and the other basically shattered (the doctor said it looked like cornflakes). They wired up his hands and reset everything as best they could; they figured he would get most of the better hand back, but didn’t hold much hope for the shattered one. In his traditional calm and collected fashion, he accepted the diagnosis in stride... and proceed to get full mobility in both hands within a year (not quite all of his original strength, but FAR better than expected).

It was Lorne’s renowned carpentry and drywalling skills that he volunteered for both family and friends. He ended up doing work for all 3 kids and their homes; he did the entire basement and suspended ceilings in Curtis’s house, including some tricky angles going around furnace ductwork. Kevin and Jen, after Mannix was born, found out that it was cheaper to have a live-in nanny to take care of the kids rather than put both of them in daycare, so Lorne and Rita came up to help build an additional bedroom for the nanny. Mom did the insulation, and Dad all of the construction. Kevin figures it would have taken himself about 2 months to do it; they had it done in less than two weeks. Even before that, he had mudded and taped their house when they first moved in. At Lorraine and Maurice’s home, Lorne re-did the textured ceiling, and he also installed laminate flooring at Maurice’s mom’s house. At Holy Cross Lutheran Church, he was one of the volunteers who helped build their daycare centre. Even after they moved to the condo, he took on jobs for the residents. In one case, he was paid to repaint a room for a couple in the condo. He did such a good job that they re-hired him immediately to re-paint the entire suite. Kevin, to this day, doesn’t feel right trying to hire somebody else to house projects, so he does them on his own most of the time.

Lorne coached hockey in the 1970’s, and was commissionaire for hockey in the local area for a time. Lorraine remembers that he would also drive other kids from the neighborhood (in addition to his own), to various sports and other events; when he dropped them off back at their homes, he would always stay parked in front of their houses until he was sure that they got inside okay. He also volunteered, along with another resident named Pete, to shovel the condo driveways whenever it was needed, even though they had a company hired to do that. Sometimes that company couldn’t come right away, so Lorne and Pete did it to make sure the residents and their guests could make it into and out of the driveway. He also served on the condo board for many years, in various positions, as did Rita.

Both Lorne and Rita did extensive traveling, especially upon retirement. Earlier, with the kids, they went to multiple places in western Canada and the USA, including Disneyland, Expo 86 in Vancouver, Wisconsin Dells, and many other places. One of their first excursions with the kids in the late 1970’s didn’t quite go according to plan; they borrowed Rita’s parents little tent trailer, and then all 3 kids caught chicken pox just a few days in. Kevin remembers an incident that happened during their vacation to Alaska in the mid-1980’s. While on the gravel Yukon highway, the brakes on the van failed... worse yet, while descending a hill. And with a trailer being towed behind. Keeping calm, as he always did, Lorne simply drove it to the bottom of the hill and let it coast to a stop. He then bled the brakes on the side of the road, and then carried on, back on vacation with the family, as if this was a perfectly normal thing to happen on vacation. After retirement, they expanded their travels, including eastern Canada, Bali, Ireland (his ancestral homeland, and Curtis went along to help explore their roots, as well as Ireland itself), Costa Rica, New Zealand and a 6 month camper van trip throughout Australia. Unfortunately, not long after the Ireland trip in 2008, Lorne was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and spent almost the entire last decade of his life at the Luthercare care home, where he was a favourite amongst the staff.

“Keep calm and Carry on” is how he lived his life. Quietly, stoically, and always persevering through any hardships, and, as you can see above, he had a fair number. They never seemed to get him down, and he would just keep a steady demeanor and do the best he could, which was usually far better than anyone expected.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Lorne’s name can be made to your local Alzheimer’s Society branch, to Luthercare Sunset Home, 1212 Osler Street, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5T2 or a charity of your choice.

There will be no public funeral service, due to CoVid-19.