Let me start off by reading from Psalm 127

“Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”
Obviously, King David knew Verle.

But, Verle was blessed in many other ways. He had two wives that loved him. He was married to his first wife, Emily, a wonderful woman, for 35 years. And, for the last 30 years, he was married to my mom.

He was solidly employed for decades. How many people can make such a claim today?

And, he was blessed to love the Lord and serve him.


But, more than being blessed, Verle Soule was a good man.
He was a good man because he was a man of honor, of virtue.
As both Debby and Doug have told us, he worked two jobs for decades. He worked those jobs in order to support his large family of eleven children. He had a duty to them, and he gladly fulfilled it.
And he was a good man because he was a blessing to others.

When my own dad was in his final illness, he hated the food at the nursing home. When Mom and Verle were in town, 4 or 5 days a week, Verle would go to Hoffman’s to buy dad a hotdog, the only thing he still really enjoyed eating. People would ask him, “How can you be so good to Louie after he treated Wanda so terribly?” Verle would reply, “I have nothing against him. He freed up Wanda for me”.
And then, there was the Blizzard of ’66. Now, for those of you too young to remember it, think of the storm we had this past weekend and multiply it by 10. The drifts were so high that we were able to slide out the roof on the second floor of the house.


In the aftermath of the storm, Verle attached a toboggan to his snowmobile, went down to Loblaws, and bought staples – milk, bread, eggs – for the neighborhood. He blessed his neighbor.