Ahead of Earl Moberg’s celebration of life, Brenda Moberg asked friends and family for words that described her husband.
Gentle. Friendly. Helpful. Loving.
Kind.
“A lot of people said kind,” she said. “That was the word that was repeated over and over again.”
More than 100 of Earl Moberg’s friends, family, and community members gathered at Rowandale Baptist Church Saturday to remember him. Earl Moberg was 81 and living with dementia when he disappeared on Dec. 12, 2023 after leaving home for a walk. He has never been found, but is presumed deceased.
“It’s great to hear other people’s memories of my dad and help really keep him alive,” said Britt Moberg, Earl’s daughter. “It was really, really healing to have this time today. I’m so glad that we were able to do that.”
Britt shared memories of his passion for fitness and adventure, his pride in his Swedish heritage, and his unwavering support for his four children. As an educator, he taught in remote communities for much of his career.
“He made me feel safe in the world,” Britt said.
Brenda felt the same; she and her “knight in shining armour” would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year.
In the later years of his life, Earl Moberg was known to wander due to his dementia. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) deemed his disappearance a critical incident in June 2024 following a review spurred by a letter Britt penned to the WRHA and health minister Uzoma Asagwara. A critical incident is an unintended event that occurs as the result of the provision of health services. The review found Earl and his caregivers did not receive the health supports needed to keep him safe.
“We can’t change what happened to my dad, and all I can do is try to advocate to try to do what I can to prevent this from happening to someone else,” said Britt.
“When Earl went missing, the first thing I said was, to the police, “Is there a silver alert issued?” and they said yes, but at that time I didn’t know it was just to the media,” Brenda Moberg said.
The Moberg family is working to change how the public is notified of missing adults. A petition to the House of Commons, sponsored by Kildonan-St. Paul MP Raquel Dancho, calls on the Government of Canada to develop a National Silver Alert System, which would alert mobile devices and broadcasts in the area where a missing vulnerable adult was last seen, much like AMBER Alerts. It’s their second time collecting signatures: The 2025 federal election and dissolution of parliament nullified their previous petition, which had collected 4,672 signatures.
While collecting signatures at Garden City Mall, Brenda Moberg hears from people whose lives have also been affected by a dementia diagnosis.
“They have relatives… that have dementia that have wandered, or they’re worried that they’ll wander,” she said.
“We just want to get more signatures on the petition so then if other people, seniors or people with dementia get missing that they will be found.”
The Mobergs thanked everyone who signed the petition so far, and who helped search for Earl since his disappearance.
“To us, he’s our father, our husband, he is our loved one and there’s just so much more beyond him than being the missing person in North Kildonan,” Britt said. “He was a truly loved person, and a father, and a teacher, and I hope that he’s remembered for those qualities as well, not just for being the person who is missing.”
The Silver Alert petition is collecting online signatures until Oct. 2, 2025.