Category: Deaths & Obits

Margot sad

She isn’t wandering around the house crying, but she’s obviously sad.  She doesn’t even try to resist when I pick her up. Jeff’s on the island.

Church was great yesterday.  Sue gave me a lift to and fro so I helped her set up tables.  Rev Debra’s sermon about Our House (our rental house, but she mentioned that..) was very inspiring, and apart from silent meditation being too short it was a good service.  I cried during Sue’s testimonial.  I never met her equal for being funny and pulling my heartstrings in the same sentence.  I got to talk to Karen, Renée, Glenn, Jean about Jenise’s passing (I bailed or more accurately, quailed, at going to the service but Jean very kindly emailed me to let me know how it was; it was well done and to Jenise’s taste, although I still would have been toast for going), sang my new call to worship for Tom, put tablecloths down (and took them up again) for the coffee hour downstairs.

And watched Dennis make his way to the men’s room.  I didn’t need to help him. He’s 92 and pretty much blind, but one of the great things about Beacon is that it isn’t too badly set up for people with various physical challenges, and he’s just so…. Dennis.  Me Loves Him.  I watched him go along the wall, his white cane tucked into his back pants pocket, because he didn’t need it.  Because it’s His House.  A more beautiful and mundane example of just what the preacher person had been talking about would be hard to conjure.

I know, it’s silly and small, but it just made me feel like the universe was a really good place for about 30 seconds, before I got distracted again.

After I got home I called Rob W to find out how he’s recovering from his knee surgery last week; he’s laid up at his auntie’s place downtown.

Spent most of the afternoon working on Come and Worship on the keyboard, to the point where my SHOULDER started to hurt.  Now I must reset the height of the keyboard so I am in a more relaxed pose at the keys.  I can actually play it in chord mode (there’s only three chords, haw haw) and I am almost to the point where I’m totally keeping the rhythm too.  This will make it much easier to score, too, since there’s a tiny little display on the keyboard which tells you which note on the clef you’re pressing.

Jeff reminded me that it’s garbage day, so I’m off to collect some trash.

I went on an’ on about dead people in my life

And somebody in my life was dying and I didn’t do anything about it but exchange emails with her less than a month ago.

Farewell Jenise.  I am very sorry for the pain and suffering you felt in your life, and if there’s one good thing about your death it’s that you’re no longer in physical pain.

I should have gone to visit her.  I wonder if I’ll ever get the lesson.  The last time I saw her was in 2009, and I fed her.  I thought it was a couple of years ago and then I searched for her name on my blog and feel crushed all over again.

 

 

John Caspell would have been 63 today

He was taken from us too soon, but it was still a privilege to know him.

And Elizabeth.

And Sue.

And Derry.

And Michael.

And Glenda.

And David.

And Bareld.

I don’t mourn for the aged dead, who went when they were ready.

Today is a day for fasting from social media and contemplation of mortality.  But only for a bit; I still haven’t completely mucked out the kitchen from Thanksgiving and I’ve got a piano lesson today at one. I’ve other chores as well.

 

You have to wonder how long they had his obit prepped

Eli Wallach, justly famed actor, has passed away at the age of 98.

Further to my “how screwed up are things employment wise” post yesterday. Boss makes worker carry him so he doesn’t get his shoes wet.  At least in China bosses get fired for pulling shit like that.

Derek Corrigan, Burnaby’sMayorForLifeâ„¢, was ticketed for driving while texting, may God clip his ear. He’s actually not a bad mayor all things considered but he’s a right gendered slur about homeless people.

If you don’t feel like going to Oak St to donate blood, there are clinics in Burnaby (finally).

Possibilities

I may be heading to Ontario in July; that’s the current plan but I have some appointments to get through first.

There is ice cream!

Across Canada people are wearing red to commemorate the Mounties who were killed in Moncton.  It was horrible that it happened, and I really wish the Mounties gave better firearms training to their staff.

Today, laundry, writing and practicing.  I’ve already done my applying for jobs for the day.

Unremarkable remarks

I went to the memorial service of Shirley, the caretaker for SOAP hall, yesterday, and it was a remarkable service in many ways.

I have never been to a memorial service where someone’s contributions to society as a worker have been made so much of.  Yet there was no mention made of class.  I have never been to a memorial service which completely left Jebus out of it, and yet yielded to sentimental comments about meeting again in heaven. Bagpipes attended, with Amazing Grace.  Local dignitaries attended her funeral – the acting Mayor of New Westminster, among others.  The Hall she lived in and worked at for almost 20 years hosted and fed her mourners for free; I learned that Steve Shearer wrote a song inspired by the hall and a conversation with Shirley called “The Old Folks Memorial Hall”, which I won’t comment on because of a certain little animated bunny.

I thank Sue, who is among the best and most adroit of women, for giving me a lift.

I am sorry Shirley has left this world.  Her friends and family are a good bunch of folks.

Now to see about heading back to the hall for church this morning after – I hope – the chance to get Jeff out for breakfast.

and now for some out and about

Paddy’s wake was conducted in a hobbit hole (the basement suite of her daughter Steph’s house in East Van, memorialized so many times on this blog in happier times) and it snowed food and rained drink, in keeping with the theme.

I sang The Housewife’s Lament very creditably although I did just about lose it halfway through when I thought of how John used to sing it along with me.  Paul still can but it’s not the same.  There was a ukelele jam, led by a woman who would AND THIS PART I TOOK OUT, BECAUSE, HEY, INAPPROPRIATE  but I knew that sooner or later the non musical people would wish to turn the floor over to the anecdotes. And so it was.  There was no weeping; there was love and mutual support.  Kindly fate, grant that my rellies have something similar when I go.

She was much loved, she will be much missed, and if I can bring more of her love for children and social justice into my weary life, I will be a better woman.  It was glorious to see Steph, even under these trying circumstances. Mike took some of Paddy’s ashes; he will dispense them by kite over Buntzen Lake, and a more appropriate farewell I can’t imagine.  Mike is very saddened by her going.

I am off to New West to spend money on mundanities like batteries for the smoke detectors.  I may just have myself a lamb lunch.

Jeff and I are experiencing some of the benefits of clean living; our rent has not gone up for the second year in a row.  We are getting A STEAL and good landlords to boot.

 

Sorrow

Paddy’s dead; she died last night holding her daughter Steph’s hand.  I was supposed to go visit her but working full time and not having a car – I said – prevented me.  Now I feel very stupid.  Visiting the sick is something you do without feeling sorry for yourself.  I will give some money to an organization that assists young genderqueer people in her honour, and ask for some peace on the subject.

Paddy was my buddy Mike’s former mom in law.

Sad news from Detroit

A man left a loaded rifle under his bed, and his four year old granddaughter found it and shot and killed a four year old boy, her cousin.

I’m sorry for all the close relatives and that little child most of all.

Leaving a loaded gun on the floor with children present is criminal negligence and the man responsible will have to live with being personally responsible for the death of his kin for the rest of his life. Having a loaded gun in a neighborhood with 1 – 2 hour police response times is not criminal negligence. Poor people don’t often get to choose where they live.

If the NRA was running kickstarters to buy gun safety equipment for poor people I’d believe their responsible gun ownership bs. As it is they have a constituency – the gun manufacturers – whom they serve with every bit of suction they can muster.

A blessing upon learning a grandmother has died.

May her faults be a lesson, her virtues an inspiration and her love ever part of your blood and bones.

 

 

 

I hope Polly rests easy; she worked with great energy up until her 80’s, and treated retirement as an invasion of her dignity.  I never had the privilege of meeting her, except through the reminiscences and travel diaries of her descendants.