Tieme Meints
May 8, 1932 April 10, 2002
Gemeente Vries, Drenthe,
Holland, Houston, B.C. Can.
Predeceased by his son Andy Meints in 1998. He is survived by his wife Aly Meints, from Houston. Children; Bernice Meints, Aaron, Caitlin, Ben, Korey, Riley, from Smithers; Henry and Fiena Dykstra, Tim, Mandy, Kalvin, Alika, Kelly, from Houston; Theo and Clara DeVos, Chris, Jordan, Hannah, from Seattle Wash.; Garrett and Anita Dam, Reuben, Caleb, Daniel, Luke, Allyson, from Cloverdale. Brothers and sisters and numerous nieces, nephews and their children.
His family laid him to rest in the Houston cemetery and a memorial was held in the Houston Canadian Reformed Church. Rev. D. Poppe conducted the service. His family made their own arrangements through the Houston Memorial Society.
In lieu of flowers, donations were requested for the Houston Memorial Society.
His Life:
In 1951 Tieme immigrated to Canada from Holland. Four years later his parents followed with 10 other siblings. They found a new home and work waiting for them. One other brother was born in Canada. While in Canada Tieme began and finished working in the forest Industry. His uncle Adrian Bergsma first gave him work at his sawmill.
Later Tieme, his father and brothers bought this sawmill. Eventually that was sold. He found work at other sawmills in Houston, Lower Mainland, Hazelton and finally Smithers.
Upon retiring he kept up his talents of gardening, fishing, and farming. Many in the Valley will remember the Meints’ vegetables at the local flea market or sold from home in Telkwa. He tended to monster vegetables. He recorded 32lb. turnips, 35lb. cabbages, and 2 1/2lb. tomatoes.
Many locals could see the award winning variety of vegetables at the Smithers Fall fair until the decision was made to continue the display on Sundays. This Tieme could not do according to his conscience. Sunday was and still is a day of rest set aside for worship to God only.
Tieme was devoted to God, his wife, his family and his larger family of the Canadian Reformed Church.
Tieme was always willing to lend a hand or vegetables to anyone who needed assistance. He spent time both as volunteer fireman and volunteer on the Houston Ambulance Corp.
Many of the First Nations people will remember his vegetables as they would also be recipients of his gifts. Though Tieme never expected anything in return, he would receive gifts from them. We are it was a competition to see who could get the largest of either one! We recall having 1(!) salmon span the length of the large freezer. That is 5 feet long! One salmon steak was sufficient to feed all 6 in our family.
During his lifetime he knew that it is God who directs our path. He knew that he had to let the Leader lead, and that he had to be satisfied to follow that lead in God’s time. Sometimes it was hard to laugh at the things to come.
His last battle was physical. He battled with cancer that was hard, fast and furious. Not ONCE did he complain. Not ONCE did he say “Why me?” He had to ask for patience because he expressed impatience in the end wanting to “go home” to be with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He knew that with God, in His time, he would have that peace forever.
You have Tieme, Papa, Opa!