A smile on a sad day

It has been a tough couple of weeks for me. We have a very close extended family, and have had two deaths. My aunt passed away on Christmas day, less then three months after being diagnosed with liver cancer. Last Thursday, we lost my grandmother. Her funeral was yesterday, and I was happy to see that she would be going to the church and cemetery in a beautiful black/red WB4 95-6 RMW Eagle hearse. Easily the best condition wagon that I have seen (well, except for Frank's), and in my favourite colour combo, too.

Jason.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Maybe you could leave your card with the funeral home, and tell them that if they ever sell their Roadmaster hearse, you're interested in buying it.

Sorry for your loss Jason.

-Mike

Damn Jay... Sorry to hear it.

My condolences to you and yours. At least the last ride was in style.

My wife says when she finally kills me she'll just thrown me in the back of my "hearse" in the driveway....

Ahh marriage...

Jason I am sorry for your loss and having lost my mother last June I know what you are going thru.Turn to your
family and close friends for support and simple conversation.They will always be in your heart and memories.
Please Take Care
Jim Gordon

Hang in there dude. It's funny how much something that normally insignificant can pick you up when you're down.

My sympathies are with you and your family. Losing a loved one is never easy and to get the double Whammy like that is all the more difficult.

Enjoy every day that we have, life's too short to drink cheap beer

Hang is there Jay, times like these have a way of making you see what's really important in life. I've had my share of sadness these past few years, it allways comes down to friends and family that help the most in pulling us through these times. Be there for your family.
Who they are made a differance in your life, that is importatant to share at this time with your family, and freinds.

There will still be some hard times ahead of you but we are here when you need us, even if it's only to vent, that's what friends are for.


Last year at my Dad's funeral the director and his two sons were all over my 93 sedan nosed wagon. They used a sivler 09 TownCar hearse to take my dad from the church to the cemetary. The hardest part of that day was when we were leaving the church and placing my Dad's casket in the back of the lincoln the OPP arrived with lights flashing and lined up on the road outside the church waitting to escort us to the cemetary the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) blocked the intersections we crossed along the way and the officers who blocked each intersection got out of their cruisers stood and saluted my Dad's hearse as it passed.
It was hard to witness that since it brought me back 40 years earlier when I was sent home from kindergarden since the school had learned that my Dad had be shot and killed while on duty.( that should tell you how much school's sensitivity trainning has improved since 1969)The teachers thought I had dreamt that my Dad had made me and my siblings breakfast and sent us all off to school that morning. I met my brother Jim in the school yard and we both walked home not knowing what to think. Our Mom was in the living room on the phone when we got home talking to my Grandfarther in NewBrunswick telling him that my dad wasn't shot and that he was upstairs in his bed sleeping. Then the door bell rang, it was other relatives arriving with food and condolences. The activity and loud converstation in the living room eventually caused my Dad to come down stairs. He informed us that Yes he had been shot in the back earlier that morning while at work but that the reports of his death were premature and that the CBC misreported the events that morning. My Dad had been working the barricades at the Cornwall island reserve when a disgruntled Newyorker fired a shot gun at my dad from five feet away. Dad used to tell me that when he saw the man put his gun to his shoulder and begin to pull the trigger my dad turned and dove then felt the worse pain in his right shoulder blade that he ever experienced, as he layed on the ground he looked up and could see the hole the gun shot made in the cinderblock wall infront of him. Cause it was winter and that he was in full riot gear the bullet only grazed the leather of his over shoulder holster as he tried to dive out of the way. The gunman fled away on foot before getting into a car and driving off in the dark. The other officer on duty there with my dad first instinct was to give my dad first aide/call for back up/ ambulance and not chase the guy who shot my Dad. My Dad was very lucky that night he was checked out at the local hospital, released filed his report ended his shift came home in time to make us breakfast and send us off to school.
It wasn't the first time the media published a story without checking all the facts.
The fact is that my Dad was lucky that night and it changed his life, soon after he reached the 20 year point and took early retirement, was recruited by the Canadian Government we moved to Ottawa, in the early 70's he worked as body guard for the prime minster of Canada, then got promoted and began feild work with External affairs. We moved to europe in janurary 74, we lived in Brusseles Belgium,Algeirs Algeria, Beijing China, Geneva Switzerland, Algeirs again, then Hong Kong and Shanghia, then Ottawa and Washington DC, then retired from Athens Greece. He was fluent in French, English, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese both Mandarin and Cantonese, Greek and Spanish.
He with out a doubt made a differance in my life. Watching the police officers Salute his casket made me thankfull that this was happening in his 81st year and not his 41st. Because of him I got a good education in some of the best schools around the world. I got to see and do things that most never get to see or do.At 13 I rode a camel in the sahara during a sand storm with my sister , brother and my dad! At 17 I got to work in a department store in Geneva Switzerland where I got to meet and have a long conversation with Catherine Hepburn who's youngest son was one year ahead of me at the school I attended. At 9 Fred MacMurray asked me to translate a sign for him and his wife in Brussles's grande place,and gave him directions to find the famous Manikanpis. My mom's jaw dropped when she realised who I was talking to, never seen her stutter before or since!
I'm thankful for the extra 40 years my dad got to live and enjoy.
I learned to speak English, German, Italian, some spanish, and enough Arabic to enrage....French is my first language since my dad was born in a house that strattled the boarder between Qubec and Maine, the front door living room and one bedroom was in Quebec, the kitchen, two bedrooms and the outhouse were in Maine He grew up speaking French despite the Irish name and being born in the Kitchen. My mom was born in Montreal....So I learned english in grade school after moving to Ottawa.

Jay sorry if I rambled on about my recent loss, but remember how those you've lost made a differance in your life, and know that you are making a differance in people's lives

if you need to ramble I'm here to listen

Jay:

Lorne also just experienced a disturbing loss. Like you he sought out his fellow board members for comfort. Unfortunately he chose the "other" board, and the misc. section no less. Regardless, someone posted a very valid Irish monologue (they call it a prayer but you know the Irish) that is appropriate:

An Irish Funeral Prayer

Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Everything remains as it was.
The old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no sorrow in your tone.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting, when we meet again.

Again, my condolences

Bill

Thanks, boys. I appreciate the kind words. Both lived good lives. I was really struck, though, when I looked around the reception hall yesterday and thought a bit about just how many people in that room had directly descended from from my grandmother. Nine kids (my dad passed when he was 49, though), at least 15 grand kids, a bunch of great-grandkids... not to mention the husbands, wives, neighbours, friends, the list goes on.

Pat, thank you for sharing about your father. It really hit home for me. I lost my dad when I was young (18), but he made a big impression on me, as well. He was a teacher, and we would run into his former students everywhere we went. All would tell me that he was the best teacher they ever had, and that he had made a difference in their lives. After he died, I began university, and I realized that if there was that many people who had said what they did, there must be something to teaching. It took awhile to achieve my goal, but I am happy. I can also report that some of my former students have told me that I have made a difference for them. Nice to hear. At dad's funeral, one of his best friend's from his teen/university years eulogized him. It was the most uplifting experience I have ever witnessed in a church. To my stunned surprise, the entire congregation burst into applause. Not something you see every day at a funeral!

Sorry for getting this section sidetracked. I just wanted to tell everyone about that black WB4

J

Sorry for your loss Jay...it is amazing when you can see how many lives can be affected by one person.

Chris

Sorry for your loss.

I know how it feels Jason,Pat nailed it,Memories.

Keep your faith.

My Sincere sympathy, Lorne.

Lorne, I thought of you yesterday when I saw the car. My cousin is a funeral director, and we know the home where things were taken care of. Three of my grandparents rested there. Good people.