Obituary of Jarrett Andrew Gebhardt

Memories of Jarrett Gebhardt by his Mom Brenda Jarrett’s life started a lot earlier than expected, and has definitely ended so much earlier than any of us could imagine. On April Fool’s Andy called Norbert and Lisa to tell the big news: that we had had the baby, it was a boy, he had weights and times all rehearsed to sound convincing, and pulled off the April fool’s prank perfectly. When the real day came, Jarrett was five weeks premature, born on April 12 at 1:55 am, weighing in at 5lbs, 13 oz and 21 inches long- tall and skinny even as a baby. Norbert and Lisa were a little harder to convince this time! We were lucky and there were no complications, and a week later our boy came home. Jarrett was a good baby and as any new parents, we thought he was the cutest and smartest baby that had ever been born. And I’m sure we told everyone that, too. His first years were spent visiting with all the other babies that were popping up around the neighborhood, Travis and Clinton Mueller, Ben Christians, and Stephanie Sideritsch. Play dates were abundant, starting these life long relationships. Jarrett loved to be with his dad and out riding on the tractor, combine, swather, quad, skidoo, anything with a motor. He had a few cute words once he started talking. The living room was the riverroom, Andy’s old green dodge was the halftime truck (we never watched football, don’t know where that came from) and asking for Farties instead of Smarties at the Donalda store, and being a farm boy and learning to potty train means going wherever and when ever you have to, even if it is in front of the Donalda Post Office. His uncle Fred nicknamed him Smiley, as there was always a smile on his face and a giggle coming out of his lips. His sister Melissa invaded his world. Now he had to share, which he didn’t always think was necessary, and at times was somewhat selfish in wanting his own way. But Melissa was his perfect counterpart, as she is such a giving person, and Jarrett was a taking person. They managed to work out equilibrium, and their life long bond began. More children were joining this Donalda Gang, Derek and Blair Mueller, Nicole and Randal Sideritsch, the Banzinger Boys, Cayle and Colten Trathen, and Kaylon Clement and the Bakers had moved to the neighborhood, with Alison, Levi , Kailey and Morgan on the way. My Uncle Orville was always showing up with another bike he had found at the dump and had fixed up to bring for the kids. Our basement was set up like a racetrack with every type of ride on or pedal type kids toy. They would get wound up going around the loop, but then someone wouldn’t make the corner under the stairs and the dryer or hot water heater would take the full force of the impact. Then it was back to the plumbers and 400 dollars later, the bikes all moved outside and Nintendo arrived. We tried to keep things fair. And when the first dirt bike was bought, Melissa had to pitch in her fair share of the saved allowances, as did Jarrett. But, she really got ripped off on that deal, as her brother never got off of that bike long enough for her to have a turn! It had started with the pedal bikes and I would watch Jarrett out the kitchen window as he would wheelie the entire length of the driveway and around to the bins. Then he moved up to the dirt bike and did the same thing. Jarrett would set up ramps for jumps and then coerce Melissa to come out and take the pictures of the jumps, they had to be action shots, even having her lay down so he could jump over her as she took the picture. I had no idea until I would get the film developed. Jarrett started school and excelled at both schoolwork and making friends. He never had to work at learning, just look at it and he would know it or remember it which was good I guess, cause he didn’t want to study or read, so that was one more short cut he could take to get himself back out to ride his bike or the little sled he had. He would take that little black sled out and go the mile across the pasture lane and meet up with Levi Baker or Andrew Senger and be out for hours or until he ran out of gas. I went to help him fill it up, and thought it would be alright to use straight gas to get it the quarter mile home, but I guess with out the oil mixed in, the engine seizes. Another one of those make work projects I would create for Andy: rebuild that engine! He loved to quad as well. It was off to ‘The Meadows’ as often as we could get away, with the little trailer and truck packed to the rafters with gear and gas. Jarrett spent many holidays out there with Trathens, and as a mother you always worry about accidents, and injuries, but they took good care of my boy and treated him as one of their own and brought him back safe and sound every time. Jarrett was growing up to be a wonderful man. He was considerate, quiet and for the most times, mild mannered. He wasn’t a very talkative kid, he kept his feeling all bottled up inside and it took a lot of kid gloves to get him to open up to tell any problems he was having. He was a lot like his father in this way. He excelled at school in Donalda and joined in the after school activities. As a family we spent 7 years in Junior Forest Wardens, where we had campouts and trail hikes and GT races. He loved that GT Racer and when his dad would hook it up behind the sled and pull him around. He and all the other kids in school were on the volleyball team; no choice really, everyone played, but that was a good thing, he maybe wasn’t the best player, but everyone worked as a team and it was a good experience. He was involved with the school dinner theatre play over the years, and every time he was the cutest kid on the stage, with his long dark hair and that big smile. Piano Lessons were short lived, as were the guitar lessons. Practice took time, he wanted to know how to play that rock song right now! But ‘Guitar Hero’ revitalized his interest and he was quite proud of himself to be able to go online and watch someone play, then be able to play the song himself. He was the president of student council and captain of the volleyball team in his final grade 9 year at Donalda School. He started his work career early, always trying to save for a bigger better dirt bike, and then for vehicles. His first job was working for Colby Miles cleaning bins. And then Scott Charles took Jarrett under his wing and they called it work, but I think Jarrett would have been there with or without a paycheque. He would rave about Cheryl’s good cooking, and was always trying to think up a prank he could pull on Scott. He did a variety of jobs with Scott, from roofing to cement basements, and everything in between, giving Jarrett a vast array of skills for a kid his age. My little boy was growing up and high school came next, with girl trouble, car trouble, all around trouble. He has had some rough spots with school, and did some things that really brought out that grey hair on his parents, especially Andy, but boys will be boys, and you can’t blame a kid for trying! And being the parents we are, either his father or myself had done the same stunts back in the day, so he had a hard time pulling the wool over our eyes. His Uncle Darcy thought that the blue Mirada would be a good starter car for Jarrett. Jarrett wasn’t quite as happy with the choice. Driving that rust bucket on to the high school parking lot did not start out his first year of high school on a high note. One afternoon Jarrett and Melissa were taking a cruise over to their fav hangout, the Muellers. When they got back, they both stormed through the door, with the blood pressure rising”… do you know what happened... that piece of junk car… the vinyl roof just blew right off…just going down the road and the roof lifted right off… “He calmed down once he heard my uncontrollable fits of laughter. Then came the line of ‘bad luck red vehicles’ or ‘the red curse’. The tricked out pink Chevy- there was a little discrepancy on make model and year-wanted to dance with power poles and was attracted to spray-paint. The Intrepid that Jarrett thought would fly until that tree got in the way, the Red GMC that wanted to add a couple of horse power. He made it out of every incident with hardly a scratch on that pretty face. He started working at Kal Tire. This was a great job, all the free castoff tires a teenage boy could want, could get a new set after every burnout! He worked his way through high school and up the ladder at Kal Tire to Service Man. On call in any weather to go out and get those tires fixed. I was very proud of him to be so dedicated and have such good work ethic at so young. He made the flight out of the nest, a little bit of a rough flight at first, but he got his wings beneath him and it was smooth sailing after that. Kyle Hasenfratz and Jamie Seibold were his roommates on top of the bakery that Kyle’s parents owned. A mother couldn’t ask for a better place for her child to start out on their own. They had rules to follow as it was a place of business, the rent was reasonable, the bread and buns were free, and they did wake up calls when they slept in. And only two blocks from work, which was handy for Jarrett as he was always either locking his keys in his truck or himself out of the apartment! He had moved on to the blue Dodge by this time, but still seemed to be plagued by incidences such as hitting deer to take his time and money on repairs. Good thing there are so many Dodge fans in the neighborhood, Ray, Chris or Darren could be counted on for a good cheap used part supply. His school years behind him, he had matured to the sweet, good kid we all knew and loved. He got his job at the mine and was very content there. He was good at it, as I knew he would be as his father was a good teacher to pass on all of his knowledge, skills and work ethic. He spent a few months living in Donalda with Travis, but soon realized he wanted to be closer to his true love, take out burgers. The pizza at Dino’s was good, but McDonalds was better! Plus no one would drive out that far to party! Jaimie, Kase and Jarrett moved into the house now known as party central. Bigger and Better toys were his passion. I’ve heard the stories of the xbox gamer’s paradise in their basement - no mothers allowed! My computer desktop picture is his white Yamaha bike, and his love of snowboarding. Jarrett and Andy had such a good relationship. These two worked together like clockwork, especially when they had another ‘great deal’ going down. I had to keep on my toes to keep on top of these two. The invention of Kijiji and ebay had become my worst nightmare. Andy would scan the websites for the next great deal, there would be a lot of mysterious calls back and forth or hushed conversations when I walked in the room. Meanwhile bank drafts were being written or cash was being withdrawn, and off they would drive to bring home the next hot rod car or ‘investments’ as Andy would call them. I can’t remember all the details anymore, I think my seeing red must affect my memory , but I can recall the conversation when I called the seller on the ebay account to explain that my 16 year old son had been using my husbands account and I was very sorry, but we would not be purchasing his collector car. The guy was quite pissed off and questioned my parenting abilities and supervision skills. Andy was upset too. Andy had told Jarrett how high to bid before stopping. Because of my interference they had missed the deal of the century! When I would drive home, I could tell if Jarrett had been at the farm , there were usually squiggle marks as soon as the pavement ended and led up to the driveway. The neighbors would look twice in their mirrors when they would see the ‘Mad Max’ dune buggy coming up behind them in a cloud of dust. Another deal Andy found – a ripped down, jacked up Camaro that looked like it came out of some sci-fi movie. He did take the rap unfairly a few times, as sometimes he got blamed for the blackies or 360’s of his father or other dads in the neighborhood when they thought they were teenagers again. Jarrett was a great kid. I could always count on him if I needed him. He willingly helped on the farm and would reorganize his day to drop everything if we called. He respected our advice and would seek it out before he made major decisions. He was wise beyond his years, knew the value of a dollar and was very mature in his financial and personal decisions he made. As a mother I knew I had done my job well, and my baby had grown up to be a wonderful man, able to take on all challenges life would throw at him. I will miss him every single day for the rest of my life. Jarrett leaves to mourn his Mother Brenda Gebhardt of Donalda, sister Melissa Gebhardt, grandparents Emma and Helmut Gebhardt, Lee Muhlbeier, Aunts and Uncles; Linda (Douglas) Lavoie, Carl (Yvonne) Gebhardt, Robert (Marilyn) Muhlbeier, Kenneth Muhlbeier, Wayne Muhlbeier, Fred Muhlbeier, Darcy (Tracy) Muhlbeier, Judith (Larry) Pals, Carol (John) MacNeil, Dianne (Pat) Page; and numerous cousins, other relatives and many dear friends and co-workers. Jarrett was predeceased by his grandfather Frank Muhlbeier and by his uncle Tim Gebhardt. Funeral Services were held at the Stettler Community Hall on Monday February 28th, 2011 at 1:00p.m. with the Pastor Karl Faltin of St. Peter Lutheran Church officiating.