Just shy of one year ago, Husband, Father of four, and LMT Editor David Elliot Degenstien passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. His oldest daughter, Lori, phoned her brother Daniel in the early hours of November 15th to inform him. To Dan, she has a reputation for being unable to deliver bad news well. She might have gotten this trait from her dad.
About a year earlier, while collaborating on finishing the paper for the week, as usual, Dave phoned Dan and, without any appropriate prelude, bluntly informed Dan that his cousin Jason had suddenly passed away. He delivered this news so incredibly poorly that Dan was nearly equally upset about the news and how Dave delivered it. Dan wondered why Dave was unable to prepare his son for such shocking news properly. But, of course, he too was shocked by this news and relayed it to Dan before he was calm enough to phrase it more gently. Disclosing bad news is never easy, whether in one’s personal life or newsprint.
Lori said to Dan, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but...” a somewhat better lead-up but, at this point, judging from her tone of voice, Dan can’t tell if she is about to say that they won the lottery, the house had burned down or Tom Cruise was shorter than she expected. The real truth was the farthest thing from Dan’s mind. When she finally finished her sentence, “...Dad passed away last night,” Dan promptly replied, “What?! Fuck off!” A fairly reasonable, albeit rude, thing to say, but given the situation, it seemed appropriate.
After some more brief conversing, it was determined that Dave would have wanted the paper to be published that day as usual despite the circumstances. Most of the content was ready and only needed to be assembled into the final product. The hardest part for Dan was writing the article informing the readers of the tragic news.
The rest of November was difficult. Christmas was difficult. The new year was difficult. Dave’s birthday was difficult. Corona made things difficult. Fathers day was difficult. But a full year later, we are still publishing the newspaper to which Dave dedicated the last decade of his life. He took on this task for his mental health, occupying his spare time after retirement, and for his wife Linda’s mental health, occupying HIS spare time after retirement. He did it to provide jobs to, at one point, three of his children, as well as other members of the community. He did it for the community.
With tens of small newspapers closing around Saskatchewan during that same time, Dave was able to keep this one going as an independent entity. He would report on local meetings as often as possible, attend local events and take photos. He would spend his evenings and weekends writing and tweaking stories. During office hours, Dave would visit with and entertain locals and travellers alike that would stop in at the office for photocopies, stationary, or just to say hi.
Over the past 12 months, as we have made contact with all of our daily, weekly, monthly, and annual customers, those that knew Dave would say only kind words about him before getting on with their business, supporting our business. Very much appreciated.
Dave worked with the newspaper for almost as long as he was a Last Mountain community member. While he spent most of his life in Regina and is now at rest in his hometown of Battleford, SK, he considered Govan home and loved being part of the community and culture.
