By Maggie Macintosh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Winnipeg Jets customized a memorial jersey for Nello Altomare with a number that nods to the hockey superfan’s final role as Manitoba’s 35th minister of education. Roughly 1,000 mourners who packed into Transcona Country Club for a public funeral Wednesday learned the career educator died shortly after the Jets’ 6-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 14. The game marked his family’s final group viewing of their favourite team — an activity that typically involved the father of two adult children standing and yelling at the TV in their Transcona home. Altomare, who was in blood-cancer remission, spent his last 4 1/2 years living with complications from chemotherapy. He was 61. In a eulogy, Jason Drysdale described his longtime teacher friend…
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