It is with sad and broken hearts that we announce the passing on January 14, 2024 at the age of 100, our much loved, heroic, and courageous father, grandfather, great grandfather, uncle, and friend to many.
Born in Italy, Ermenegildo (Gildo) was the youngest of five children born to Bortolo and Elizabetta Marola. He was a considerate and hardworking man who loved life.
Forced to leave school in his mid teens for calling Mussolini a donkey, he apprenticed as a cheese maker in the local dairy.
At 19, when the second world war broke out, he joined the Italian Resistance. Eventually captured by the Fascists, he escaped death the night before he was to be hanged.
He fought in the great battle of Granezza, manning a gatling gun and fending off an overwhelming 3-pronged attack by Nazi and mechanized Fascist troops from overrunning their encampment which allowed the rest of his unit to slip away through the forest. Near the end of the war, he was gravely wounded in another encounter with retreating German troops.
In 1954, he emigrated to Canada, where he crossed the country working for CP Rail. He found work as a faller in Northern BC and eventually settled in Dawson Creek. In 1957 he was joined by his wife Maria and his two sons Bortolo and Franco. He worked as a carpenter until a devastating fall from the rafters of the ice arena he had been working on changed the course of his life. Upon recovery, after 18 months in a body cast, Gildo found work with the Dawson Creek School Board where he was known as “Grandpa Joe” by all the students. He worked there until his retirement in 1985, when he and Maria moved to Surrey to be near their children and grandchildren.
He always found time to hunt and fish, raise some squab to share with friends on special occasions, grow a huge garden of fruits and vegetables and of course make some wine.
He was our Don Quixote, our Sir Galahad, the warrior who - even in his passing - put one over on Death. In his passing he gained the greatest victory of his life in that he is now in the company of the great love of his life, our incredible mother, Maria.
Predeceased by Maria, his wife of 73 years, Gildo is survived by 3 sons Bortolo (Bort) and daughter-in-law Judy, Franco and daughter-in-law Barbara, Gerry and daughter-in-law Diane, as well as 6 grandchildren Carmen (Daniel), Aaron (Eunice), Robert (Danyelle), Catherine (Mitchell), Patrick and Andrew (Nicola), 5 great grandchildren Matteo, Oliver, Charles, Isabelle, and Eli as well as numerous nieces and nephews in Italy and cousins in Colorado, USA.
The family wants to thank the nurses and care staff on the Magnolia floor at the Pointe in Evergreen Baptist Campus of Care, White Rock where Ermenegildo resided for 8 years, for their care and compassion.
A memorial mass will be celebrated on Feb. 22, 2024, at 11:00am at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 2250-150th St., South Surrey, B.C. Inurnment to follow at Gardens of Gethsemani Cemetery, South Surrey, B.C.