JOSE “JOE” MANUEL COSME

March 16, 1954 - December 12, 2022

Joe is survived by and will be forever and lovingly missed by Dale, his wife and life partner of over 50 years, his sons, Jason and Jonathan, and his daughters, Jaime (Conrad) and Monica and their families.  Four sisters, Margarida (Albino), Gabriela (Octavio), Dorvalina (Jose, deceased), and Julieta, his grandchildren, great grandchildren, many nieces, nephews, extended family, and close friends.

 

Joe came to Canada in 1966 at age 12 when his family emigrated from the Portuguese Azores. As a teen, he worked at Greb Shoes in Winnipeg, where he met Dale, and they married at 18 and 16 years old.  They started their family and Joe soon hired on at CN, where his dad had worked since first arriving in Canada in 1957. Over the next 43 years, Joe worked many various jobs at CN due to layoffs or seasonal changes. They always had a job he could go to, and he did whatever was necessary, first as a section man, then on snow clearing gangs, a janitor, a crane operator, a hostler, then into the running trades as a switchman, brakeman, and finally a locomotive engineer until his retirement in 2016. He loved his job and his last several years there, he found he greatly enjoyed taking on trainees to pass on his expertise and experience. For many years, he was known by co-workers as "The Portugoose."  He was immensely proud that two more generations of his family became railroaders after him, making a four-generation railroad family. 

 

Joe and Dale also owned and operated Cosme Video movie rentals from 1983-1999, in Landmark, Lorette, and Niverville.  An arcade with pool tables was established at two of the stores. Many memories and relationships, business and personal, were formed over those years and the whole family worked within the business at various times.

 

Since about 2009, Joe had attended the Steinbach Model Railroad Club, where he made some close and lasting friendships. When the club was forced to move from the space they were in, Joe and his buddies set up and continued the club in the basement of their home in Steinbach, where Joe and Dale had moved at the end of 2021. 

 

Their home and life were very peaceful and enjoyable until mid-summer of 2022, when Joe began to get ill, and in late autumn, he was diagnosed with aggressive non-Hodgkins Large B Cell Lymphoma. After emergency surgery in November, and attempts at treatment, he sadly passed away at 68 after one month at HSC.
 

In accordance with Joe's wishes, no service was held. 

 

We would like to share more memories of Joe at a celebration of life being planned for August 11, 2023.

 

More details on Joe's Facebook Memorial page.