RONALD CHRISTOPHER NESBITT CROOK
October 22
RONALD CHRISTOPHER NESBITT CROOK
It is with broken hearts that we say goodbye to Ron Crook, our beloved father and father-in-law. He was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in 2020, and after a remarkably lengthy journey with this disease, he went home to be with Jesus during the afternoon of September 26. We know that while our hearts were breaking, and it was so desperately hard for him to leave us, he would have rejoiced as he reunited in heaven with our beloved mom and his great love, Kathy. Their reunion truly would have been something to behold, as they were best-friends-in-love for 41 years. Everyone who saw them together knew, without a doubt, that they shared an unbreakable bond.
Ron will be lovingly remembered by his daughters Stephanie (Kelan) and Amy (Andrew). He is also survived by his sister Deb (Ed) and his brother Randy, and their children Kaity, Christian, Carly, and Marshall. He was predeceased by his wife Kathy in 2017, his father Richard in 2018, his mother Gail in 1992, his stepmother Evangelina in 2019 and his stepfather Garth in 2003. He also recently grieved the losses of his mother-in-law Wilma in 2019, sister-in-law Diane in 2023, brother-in-law Greg in 2023, and brother-in-law Richard in 2022. Ron will be dearly missed by so many, including the Joss family and their extended family, the Springs Church community, and innumerable friends and neighbours. Ron truly made friends everywhere he went.
How can anyone capture Ron’s spirit in words? He was certainly larger than life. He loved playing and listening to music, drawing, sketching, painting, watching movies, playing video games, listening to podcasts, and reading. It was hard to bring up a subject that Ron didn’t know at least something about, as he was a very curious person. He could even answer some introductory questions about quantum physics! He loved talking about all kinds of subjects and his favourite place to have a chat was seated across from someone for a coffee, preferably a mocha. He also loved making coffees at home with his espresso machine. He took pride in making a delicious coffee for someone. He held a wide-eyed sense of wonder towards life, and we know that many people drew inspiration from his positive outlook.
Though Ron was a very positive person, he also faced many challenges, particularly with the devastating loss of Kathy, and his own cancer diagnosis. He had spent far too much time in the hospital over the past four years, but we were never surprised to find that he had befriended the medical staff by the time he was leaving, even during emergency room visits. Ron always said that it was important for him to focus on what he could control versus what he could not. He could not control his health trajectory all the time, but he could make the best of his difficult experiences by connecting with the people around him. Ron simply loved people and consistently demonstrated exceptional care and concern for people from all walks of life.
Ron and his wife Kathy began regularly attending Springs Church in 1996. They had seen Leon Fontaine on television in the early 90s, and when they later saw a newspaper ad announcing that Leon and Sally were going to be pastoring Springs Church, they decided that Springs would be their home church, even if they had to take three buses across the city from St. James to get there. It did not take long for them to make friends at church and for someone to offer to carpool with our family. Ron was a high school teacher and worked alongside Kathy at Springs Christian Academy from 1996 until 2010, when he became the Director of Springs College. He remained working at Springs College until his cancer diagnosis in 2020. His sudden departure due to ill health was very difficult for Ron as he missed his colleagues and students dearly. Working with youth was Ron’s passion. He felt that youth have so much potential and that if they are guided well, they can achieve their dreams and learn to serve their communities well. All he wanted was for his students to live the incredible lives that he believed that God had in store for them. Ron had never been a person that was primarily focused on material success. Rather, his upmost value in life was having quality relationships and that was his measure of success. Because Ron worked so hard at developing relationships, he found himself surrounded by so much love in his final days.
Ron also found great support through the Kidney Cancer Canada community. He looked forward to his monthly calls with the patient and caregiver support group over video chat. Any time he had to miss a call, especially due to ill health, he was very disappointed. He had also trained as a peer mentor with this organization and even during the last week of his life, he was attempting to arrange a peer mentoring call with another person who was facing a stage four kidney cancer diagnosis. He was also excited to be invited to deliver a few virtual talks associated with the organization, one of which was at the Patient and Caregiver National Forum in 2021. We have been told that he was an important member of their community, and that his wisdom and outlook on life helped so many people. While this does not surprise us, it just goes to show that Ron was such an authentic, pure-hearted, and sincerely kind person.
Our family would like to sincerely thank the medical teams at CancerCare and the 5th Floor of the Grace Hospital for their incredible care for Ron. It is likely unusual to say that a person felt loved by their medical teams (simply due to the nature of that relationship), but we truly believe that Ron did. CancerCare supported him through all his ups and downs. They rejoiced with him when he beat his original prognosis and when he bounced back from incredibly difficult challenges. They also comforted him when they had to deliver bad news, including when they discovered that his treatment had stopped working in mid-September. The Grace Hospital provided excellent care for Ron during this most difficult time. Ron realized that he would need to suddenly prepare for entering hospice, and in typical Ron fashion, he made the best of it. He asked his daughter Stephanie to take pictures of the hospice grounds, and he created a note in his iPad where he wrote out his dreams for making the hospice experience all that it could be. Unsurprisingly, his main goal for hospice was to spend quality time with his family and friends. During his stay at the Grace Hospital, he had one wonderful week of time spent with family, hospital visits, video games on his Playstation Portal, journaling, take-out coffees, ice creams, and smoothies. The hospital staff went above and beyond in their care for him, which made him feel as at-home as possible. Ron always said he was not afraid to die, he just simply loved life and his loved ones so much that he didn’t want to stop living.
A celebration of Ron’s life will be held on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at 725 Lagimodiere Boulevard (Springs Church). A private family interment will follow in the months to come. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Kidney Cancer Canada, to the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, or to the Build the Future Campaign at Springs Church.