Garth Comfort

Garth was born Feb 23 1936, and was adopted that same year by Ron & Hilda Comfort. After having two girls, the wanted a baby boy to grow up and in the future help with the large dairy farm that is now just 2 miles from Red Deer City limits on 30th Ave. To everyone's surprise Ron & Hilda gave birth to Garth’s younger brother John Ronald Comfort, on Dec, 15th 1938. As both boys grew up, they became inseparable. However, Garth claimed that after that he was treated pretty much like a "farm hand". It was his brother John who got dad through the hard times until Garth left the family farm in his teenage years.

Despite Garth’s claims of being mistreated, Ron & Hilda gave both boys an 80 acre piece of land 3 miles from the Comfort Dairy operation that was first started by Ron Comfort’s father, Ronald Comfort, in 1906. When the two brothers were given these properties, one parcel was much nicer than the other because it had an older farmstead with mature trees on it, so it was easier to establish a new place to live. The other property had more brush & swamp areas. It was John who insisted that Garth take the better of the two properties.

Garth then went to work for Parker Drilling as a roughneck or floor hand I believe at the age of 18. At the age of 19, Garth was able to buy a brand new 1957 Ford Convertible from Stettler Motors as that was the area dad had been working at. There is a story that can be checked out in the Stettler Newspaper archives where Garth and a friend were caught painting the towns water tower. Why? Because Garth & his friend worked night shifts (grave yard shifts) and when they drove into Stettler every morning at sun rise the sun gleamed off the water tower so much that it was very aggravating. Yes, Garth & his friend may have done a bit of drinking that night they decided to paint the tower a colour that did not shine as much. Sorry, I cannot remember what color this was. About when they had it half painted the local police arrived on site and with a bullhorn got their attention and were told to stop their painting operations immediately! The two young men knew they had no way out so put their brushes down and climbed down the tower. In 1957 the laws towards drinking & driving were much more tolerant than today’s laws. So the officer was not interested in that, just defacing the town water tower. Soon the two men were facing the Judge and nearly the whole town showed up as it became the "Hot Story" for that time; first page on the town’s newspaper. They were sentenced to repainting the whole tower back to the same color. Garth thought this was unfair as they only repainted half of the tower that faced east. Garth said it was very difficult painting that tower during beautiful summer days looking down at his shiny white 57 Ford Fairlane 500 convertible knowing they could be having fun chasing girls at "Buffalo Lake" just minutes from Stettler.

Only a few years later tragedy would fall on the Comfort family when Garth's brother John drowned in Sylvan Lake while scuba diving. Garth claimed that he was not invited to that family picnic and felt that had he been there, he would have been watching John very closely & could have prevented his drowning that was a result of getting "The Bends".

John was a graduate of the Red Deer Composite High School & the Olds School of Agriculture. Garth had always wanted to do the same but Garth was dyslectic and in those days not many people had even heard of this learning disorder. This was not diagnosed until later in his adult years after his parents had passed. Garth was not even given the chance at a good education because his adopted father "Ron" pulled Garth out of school when he was in grade 8 because winter came early that year so his father needed extra help to get the wheat bundles off the field. Garth was never given the opportunity to return to school and catch up.

Before Garth left the oil well drilling, he worked his way up to being a derrick hand, one time cheating death when he fell out off the derrick floor but was able to grab a drilling pipe and ride it to the rig floor! In Garth’s early 20s he had decided that drilling oil wells could not be a whole lot different than drilling water wells. So with his parents help he bought a water well drilling rig & water truck and started Comfort Drilling.

 Garth drilled water wells most of his life but still he yearned to be a farmer. In the late 1970s, dad built a feed lot & cattle shed whose bright orange façade can still be seen miles from 30th avenue, towards the old Comfort Dairy farm. Garth tried feed cattle, where he fed dozens of steers all winter long then sold them in the spring not even breaking even. Then Garth got into Pure Breed Pulled Herford's, with the goal of one day producing a Grand Champion. It took a few years but in 1979 at the Innisfail Herford Center he achieved that goal. That heifer sold for a whopping ten thousand dollars. However this did not cover the losses he endured getting to that point. His farming adventures took a huge toll on his water well drilling business and in that same year interest rates doubled over night forcing Garth to sell his farm. Garth did very little in the next 20 years until he once again was able to buy a water well drilling rig this time calling his business, Perfection Drilling. Garth continued to drill water wells up into his late 70s mostly working half days. When dad started having trouble with his knees his son Trevor helped him drill his last water well.

Soon into his retirement he spent some time being good friends (not romantically), with a nice lady named Gene. Garth also socialized lots at one of Red Deer's Tim Horton's. Then Garth entered a 3 year relationship with a nice lady named Cecilia, that only ended when Garth could no longer walk and needed assisted living. Garth lived out the last three years of his life at Red Deer's Michener Extendicare, where he was very well loved by most of the staff there. A special thanks goes out to my wife who found him this great facility to live at and found government funding to pay for his care. Also we would love to thank all the staff at Mitchener Extendicare for taking such great care of him.