He touched the hearts of many, leaving each one feeling more loved than the moment before.

Jane Gallibois and Irving Shattler were gifted with their third child on May 13, 1945. Reginald Irving Shattler was their second son, who would soon become the third child of nine.

My grandfather, Reginald, was a man of deep faith who enlightened the lives of many. He was a thoughtful man who was continually helping others. My grandfather lived an exceptional life of which he always told stories about, my fondest one being about how he got my grandmother to fall in love with him.

During a warm summer's day on August 17, 1965 Reginald and Meva Shattler became one. Raising six children and loving each other more as each day passed. Together they shared heartwarming kitchen dances and rocking chair laughs, living everyday selflessly and being kind to everyone who entered their lives.

Getting married at the tender age of twenty and going on to raise a family, my grandfather started out by carrying water from the river to people’s homes for money in order to support his loved ones. Working a few different jobs before finding his trade, he then pursued a job in drilling and blasting which he continued to do for several years within multiple communities in Québec and Nunavut. Incredibly, my grandfather had also worked on drilling the holes in his hometown of Saint-Augustin for the installation of the tower.

In the times where my grandfather was home from work he would enjoy the wilderness by trapping, hunting, and fishing. Experiencing many unimaginable events as a young man; hunting with the Indigenous people for caribou over the hills in the cold winter months with his dog team was just the start of it. Always living off of the land, my grandfather was one of the healthiest individuals I have ever known.

In the mid summer months of 2018 while living outside on the islands with my grandmother, my grandfather’s right hand began to consistently swell. The hand itself would sometimes become numb and lose feeling. Assuming it was from a painful fall while working in Iqaluit a few years prior, the strong willed man continued to ignore the feeling as he waited for the swelling to go away. The swelling persisted. When his hand started to bring him pain he decided it was time to see a doctor, and in November of 2018 my grandparents flew to Sept-Iles, Québec to see what could be causing the problem. In March of 2019 after many flights and doctor visits that followed by endless testing, the issue was discovered and my grandfather was diagnosed with the heartbreaking disease of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Once my grandfather was diagnosed with ALS his body quickly began to break down his motor neurons (specialised nerve cells) and each limb one after the other became paralyzed as his brain could no longer communicate with these muscles.

Many parts of his home began to change for the first time in twenty-five years in order to make it wheelchair accessible as my grandfather entered the middle to late stages of his disease. By October 2019 he could no longer use his legs. My grandparents living room was converted into their bedroom, laundry room into showers, and closets into doorways. The queen sized bed that he had shared with my grandmother shortly became a single sized hospital bed as he could no longer lay down flat on his back because if he did, he would not be able to breathe. Everything was being taken from him. It seemed as each season passed, another part of my grandpa did too. His mind was strong, but his body was unable to be anymore. Slowly and painfully his limbs became paralyzed, then his lungs, abdominal muscles, and throat muscles.

In the cold morning of December 24, 2019 at 1:41am my grandfather became the most beautiful guardian angel while being surrounded by his wife of 54 years, their children and grandchildren along with a few other family and friends who gathered in Quebec City at the Hopital Enfant-Jesus.

Courage is the ability to do something that may frighten you, and I have never met a more courageous man than my grandfather.