At the age of 82 years, with his loving daughters Tamy and Kareen by his side, Willy Horst Peters passed away peacefully, invoking his right to die with dignity.

Willy was born in Lindenau, Germany. He grew up in Germany experiencing the turmoils and horrors of World War II. His family fled the Russians when he was 9 years old, and like many at the time, witnessed atrocities that are unimaginable to the majority of us now.

As a young man in the latter half of the 1950s, he immigrated to Canada with aspirations of farming, and for a time working in Ontario before attending technical school in Winnipeg. He also travelled in Canada and visited family in the USA. In 1958, while living in Winnipeg, he met and married Anita, who was also from Germany. As a newly married couple, they moved to Edgewater in 1958 and lived for a short time as renters, and then as property owners on the farm in Edgewater. Being a hard worker, Willy raised cattle and produced hay while working full-time over the years, first as a logger and then as a miner.

In October 1972 at the age of 37 years, Willy had the misfortune of falling from a hay barn he was constructing. The incident left him a paraplegic. Despite this, Willy continued to be in charge and run the farm for more than another 40 years.

The last few years Willy was forced to face the reality that age affects everyone, and it meant further changes to what he was so good at doing; farming. Despite his iron-willed disposition, he was never fully able to accept this inevitable fact. Willy passed away at the Columbia House in Invermere.

Willy leaves behind his ex-wife Anita Peters; daughters Tamy and Kareen; son Daniel; two brothers, Heinz and Kurt and a sister, Erica. He is predeceased by his brother Walter.

As per Willy’s request, there will be no memorial nor funeral service. Cremation services were handled by McPherson Funeral Service in Cranbrook.