Dennis Brears

Dennis Kerry Brears

Dennis Kerry Brears, age 55 passed away after a short illness on August 13, 2018. The family wishes to extend a heartfelt thanks to the professionals and all the staff on the 3rd floor Grace Hospital.

Dennis was born in Perth, Ontario to Dave and Beverly (Barr) Brears; he was the middle child, Garry being the oldest, Garth the youngest. Dennis grew up in Winnipeg living in Charleswood during his formative years, moving and working in Gull Harbour then onto Island Lake before returning back to Headingley. He was preceded by his mother Beverly Brears and sister-in-law Kim Brears.

Dennis graduated from Oak Park High School after which he earned a Political Science degree from University of Winnipeg. He had many gifts, none greater than a curious mind, a voracious appetite for reading, a brain that forgot little, the ability to apply what he learned, and a willingness to work hard. His natural abilities led him to operate Island Lake Lodge for many years. He loved his clients, whether they be fishermen flown in from corporate America, or a broad section of humanity staying at his lodge. He enjoyed listening, debating, telling stories and mostly laughing with each guest. After his two daughters were born, Teighan (2002) and Tori (2006), he left the north and spent the rest of his working life at McDonald Youth Services in Winnipeg. Dennis ran both the building/ maintenance department and oversaw the IT department in a modernization phase. For fun Dennis golfed on and off at Breezy Bend with the family and friends and as the girls grew he spent many evenings attending their activities.

Dennis cried very few times in his life, which made it difficult to see him in tears as he considered his beautiful daughters in his last few weeks, wishing he had done more for and with them, while also being as proud as any father could be of their achievements. Dennis recognized and loved their intelligence, quick wits, and innocence but, more than anything, he simply wished for them to be happy, now and forever.

Dennis spent his life pushing the envelope and, with an edge, he always wanted to know more, rarely stopping to simply smell the roses. It was only most recently when, having been given the gift of knowing the end was near, did he allow himself time to consider the softer side of life. He, not unexpectedly, excelled, almost as if his brain was awash in possibilities - being vulnerable, talking about his feelings, expressing his long-buried burdens, he said it all. Dennis died at peace and in comfort.

There will be a small family get-together but no celebration of life, per his wishes. He was eternally grateful for the support and outpouring of caring from his family, friends, and co-workers.

In lieu of flowers, a small donation can be made at the Noventis Credit Union in the “Teighan and Tori Trust Fund” which will be used for their continuing education. Cheques can be sent to Teighan and Tori Trust, co Garry Brears, 21-6645 Roblin Blvd. Winnipeg, MB. R3R 3S4.

Condolences, pictures and videos may be left on his tribute wall at www.gilbartfuneralhome.com

Gilbart Funeral Home, Selkirk in care of arrangements.

As I sit and ponder Dennis’s life, I’m full of wonderment and awe. I thought I knew him, but most of what I thought I knew (up until 6 weeks’ ago) was either limited or I misunderstood him … and I was his brother. He was our family’s black sheep for sure, and he wore that title well. What I didn’t appreciate is why, and that’s the interesting part. I think he was always concerned with finding the truth and had little patience for the niceties, at least when he was younger. He likely could tolerate things better as he aged but he certainly had a social conscience before I knew what it was to have one - as such he couldn’t tolerate racism in any form, had no tolerance for pretentiousness, would be driven crazy if presented with someone who refused to think for themselves, could not accept laziness, and was so disinterested in status he likely walked away if someone trumped themselves … truly an individual of his own making. It bothered him that he upset people because of his nature but he still wouldn’t apologize for it.  Dennis had a big brain: I would be flabbergasted if he ever lost an argument, and arguments were just plain sport to him. He rarely forgot anything he read and his true gift was that he could apply most of it one way or another. Simply, as a hobby he taught himself, and then others, “how to make money online”. Remarkably he was on top of the google search engine for years if you typed those keywords….and he did that simply as a hobby when working up north. Besides being intelligent as most of us would recognize it, he was equally adept at being “street smart”. As we spoke over the past number of weeks, he told some great stories. My favorite was when his backhoe fell through the ice and landed on the bottom of the lake. Only Dennis and his crazy native companion, George, would consider “driving the ice deeper, all around his backhoe by compressing it, followed by the task of chipping the ice off and out of his backhoe (at this point the ice was surrounding the machine on all sides), and lastly by starting it up and literally driving it off the bottom and onto the shore. Yikes, you don’t learn that at university. Speaking of that, he had a political science degree that he could have put toward law school quite successfully I imagine, but chose to be self-made instead, which, as I have suggested, was his gift and why he was so successful owning and running his fishing lodge at Island Lake. After the north, he landed a career position (stunning to me at first as he actually elected to work for someone else) but recognizable in that he soon rose to the top in not one department, but two departments at McDonald Youth Services, a huge not-for-profit outfit in Winnipeg. He headed both their maintenance department (40 buildings?) while also revamping their entire IT department with state-of-the-art equipment (did I mention he was self-taught...). He clearly garnered much respect, as I was fortunate to meet some of his co-workers over the last few weeks.

He had few regrets in the end, but his biggest was not being able to spend more time with his girls. He cried when he said he never took them to Disneyland. He was extremely proud of them both. I think he believes they are “thinkers” and will always consider what they read and hear, but ultimately will form their own conclusions. They will be his legacy. I asked him what his favorite time in life was, he said once he shut down the restaurant at his lodge, he would walk in the dead of winter, in the dead of night, with his dog, Dudley. They would travel to the other side of the island, simply to sit in the snow without artificial light, and in the moonlight he would ponder life with his best friend at his side and they would sit for ages.

Dennis was not afraid of death. As he explained it, he was more fearful of getting bored as he aged. He was afraid he would run out of things that stirred his curiosity. That said, he loved doing simple as well as complex. Riding his tractor, cutting grass gave him great enjoyment. He wasn’t a joke-teller but he appreciated a sense of humor, literally right to the end. He said he couldn’t understand why the people at hospice were so glum when he had a meeting with them, “why couldn’t someone tell a joke”. He told me that upon hearing that he had cancer, his first thought was, “Shit, I won’t see the ending of The Game of Thrones” - we laughed and we cried.

Dennis spent his life with an edge, he needed to be logical. He was very left-brained and I often thought too much so. In the last six weeks I most definitely saw his other side. He made himself completely vulnerable and he wore that very well. We talked about love and he explained that he felt it could only be understood well if you were willing to take a bullet for your children, and he would have. I could only be proud of him. He was my brother and I waited to my last conversation with him to say thank you for looking after me. I recognized early on that his edge was always directed away from me, I could tell he saw me with pride, he wanted to introduce me to his dearest friends in the last few weeks and I was proud to be introduced by him.

I believe Dennis will pass when we forget about him - for me, I suppose that will only be when I pass and for those of you who also loved him, perhaps it will be the same for you.

Please pass this along for those who might want to read a bit more about him.

Thank you.

Garth

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Dennis Brears, please visit our floral store.