Thomas Richard Southern

Thomas Richard Southern
July 13, 1933 – January 22, 2021

Tom entered into rest at Caressant Care McLaughlin on Friday, January 22, 2021 at the age of 87. Tom was the beloved husband of the late Nellie Southern (2008). Loving dad of twins – daughter Kathy and her husband Russ Clark, his predeceased son Ken (2013) and his wife Donna Southern. Proud grandpa of Rick (Jenna), Joe (Kristal) Southern and Derek (Kate), Adam (Stef) Clark. Cherished great-grandpa of Wyatt, Naomi, Bryson and Will, Alyssa, Ben, Amelia and Morgan. Tom is predeceased by his sisters Millie (Peter) Imrie and Joyce (survived by Jack) Bell, also survived by his sister-in-law Myrla Wilson. He will be missed by his nieces and nephews. Dear friend of Marlyn McGee and her family. On Wednesday, January 27, 2021, a private family service will be held at 1:30 P.M. in the chapel of Lakeland Funeral & Cremation Centre. If desired, memorial donations may be made to the Ross Memorial Hospital Foundation – Dialysis Unit or Diabetes Canada.

You may join the Funeral Service on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 1:30 P.M. 
via ZOOM by following the link below

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89907244605?pwd=blRvOURUbTNoVWlIYUpxdEw0RHpPUT09

Passcode: dM7mSY

***Attendees to Lakeland Funeral Centre are required to bring and wear a mask. COVID restrictions in effect.***

“So, God Made a Farmer”

And on the 8th day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker!”. So, God made a farmer!

God said I need somebody to get up before dawn and milk cows and work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board. So, God made a farmer!

I need somebody with strong arms. Strong enough to rustle a calf, yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry and have to wait for lunch until his wife is done feeding and visiting with the ladies and telling them to be sure to come back real soon…and mean it. So, God made a farmer!

God said “I need somebody that can shape an ax handle, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire make a harness out of hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And…who, at planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty hour week by Tuesday noon. Then, pain’n from “tractor back”, put in another seventy two hours. So, God made a farmer!

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop on mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place. So, God made a farmer!

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees, heave bails and yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink combed pullets…and who will stop his mower for an hour to mend the broken leg of a meadow lark. So, God made a farmer!

It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight…and not cut corners. Somebody to seed and weed, feed and breed…and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk. Somebody to replenish the self feeder and then finish a hard days work with a five mile drive to church. Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who’d laugh and then sigh…and then respond with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life “doing what dad does”.

So, God made a farmer!

By: Paul Harvey