Abram Loewen was born Christmas Eve, 1900 (Julian calendar) in Heuboden. When he was 4 years old, his parents moved the family to Orenburg where they were able to have their own home in the village of Pretoria, where Abram grew into adulthood.

     When the family settled in Simons Valley, one year after arriving in Alberta, Abram and Helena were the only two not to join them, as they were gainfully employed elsewhere.

     In 1938, he purchased his farm, a quarter section across from the Bergthal Mennonite Church in Didsbury, with a tiny two-bedroom cabin on it.  He soon added a lean-to for an entrance, a pantry, and steps down to a dirt-walled basement.  About this time he married Helen Unger, and less than a year later, in 1940, he lost her and the twins she was carrying when she became toxemic. Abram left the farm in someone else’s care for a year, while he withdrew to deal with his grief.

     On December 15, 1945, Abram married Elizabeth Neufeld, youngest in a family of eight, born November 19, 1914, who lived on a farm one mile away.  It took over a year to win her – he was a ‘Russlander’ and his pronunciation of ‘ths’ just wasn’t what she wanted in a husband.  Love, however, won the day; her pride had to go – even so far as having to return to a church that had turned out her mother and her because they had attended tent meetings.

     To make financial ends meet, Abram engaged in mixed farming: half a dozen dairy cows, steers for beef, hens for meat and eggs (for several years they took 30 dozen crates of eggs biweekly to customers in Calgary), sometime pigs, several years of meat birds, and finally turkeys.  Abram built one of the first two large turkey farms (quota of 6000) in Canada.  This business helped him pay off his farm by his early 70’s.  Over the years, wings were added at either end of the cabin to hold the growing family.  In the early stages, he had also built his garage and barn. The barn required special curved rafters for which he had to build the forms and bend the wood. Beth, his wife, was his right hand, helping with chores, preparing four meals a day, baking 3 days a week and so on.  Even so, she would stay up until midnight sewing clothes for her children, remaking her best ones in the very lean years so that the children would have clothes.

     Abram continued farming until his 80’s, when more time was given to fishing, travel, gardening, and the winter quilting season. With clothes they got from thrift store cast-offs, Abram would open the seams and cut the blocks, while Beth would design and sew them together. This they continued to do for at least 20 years, making countless number of quilts for MCC to send overseas, where blankets were needed for disaster relief.

     Beth was an excellent seamstress. She was known for attention to detail and perfection when it came to sewing; there was a definite way of stitching so that no seam would come apart. Anything not done right, was re-done. In her later years, she could afford to dress well, and she loved to look good, and Abram loved for her to look good. This was just another expression of how she lived her life – with dedication and panache!

     Abram had joined the Bergthal Mennonite Church in 1928, shortly after his arrival in Canada, where he remained an active member all his ‘Canadian’ life. He served on various boards throughout the years as well as being on the board of Menno Bible Institute.  Abram’s love for swimming and reading, which he had cultivated in Russia, remained strong throughout his life.

     Abram, also known to his family as Dad, Opa, Grandpa, or Papa, had a deep friendship with God and loved His creation.  This was evident in his commitment to his church and family, but the greatest impact to his children was his total trust in God in the many hard years; in year after year of complete crop loss, and winning his struggles for peace and trust in spite of what seemed humanly-impossible situations. Beth was his constant companion and right hand in every sense of the word. Though outspoken and quick tempered, she loved Abram intensely and gave all that she had to give, to support him, and make a good home.

     Abram died at home on his farm at 96 years of age in 1997. Beth stayed at the farm for another year, after which she moved to a seniors’ home in Didsbury. In 2000, she moved to Vancouver Island to live with her daughter and family, and in her final years, she moved into an extended care home in Campbell River, where she passed away in 2005, at 90 years of age. Their son, Richard, died of MS in 2008.

     Abram and Betty’s direct descendants number 25 (2023).