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children, Denis Beaulieu, Drummond street, Family, Green ave, heir, Holt Renfrew, Montreal, Peel street, Ritz Carlton Hotel, Rosemount Ave., Son, Westmount
As I am getting older, I will be 60 in 7 months, I find that I am happy to have little on my social agenda. I am retired and I have been very active in the last 3 years with various volunteer jobs. However this summer we had 9 weeks of interminable renovations and then suddenly my father died. I feel like I want to get off the merry go round. I am very tired and not sleeping well. Blame it on too many emotions and memories. Too much to do to sort out my late father’s affairs and belongings, finding the right people to dispose of things, etc. I am not alone in this task, my sister and brother-in-law are also extremely helpful and very well organized.
It’s mental fatigue more than anything else, maybe a slight depression. Loosing a parent is like a part of us has died.
As I travelled within the City going from the North side of the Mont Royal to the Western Side I criss-cross streets and neighbourhoods between Montreal and Westmount, everything reminds me of my childhood, my old schools, the streets, etc. The Office where my mother worked in Real Estate in Westmount and the stories of houses and people she met. Shops where my father liked to do everyday shopping, restaurants, people he knew, he spoke to everyone. Even the last street he lived on Rosemount, a street of large mansions, he knew all the neighbours, who they were and their family stories, if anyone told him something he would remember it did not matter if the conversation occurred last week or 20 years ago. He certainly had a sense of observation and he knew Montreal.
Thursday last was the appraiser who took what was going to auction and then Friday the Charity to whom the rest of his belongings went to. The apartment is now empty and I walked around it one last time, it felt very strange. This is what he wanted, he was against expensive funerals and chose to give his body to science and his belongings to charity. We the children respected his wishes simply because it was his will and he would have been disappointed in us if we had not.
I do not know how much time it will take to put the events of July 2015 behind me. A neighbour told me that it could take several months. My Mom died two years ago this September and I still think of her. I think that with Dad it will be the same, they remain a presence despite having entered the afterlife.
After completing my task at Dad’s apartment I went to the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal on Friday to see the Rodin exhibit, the museum is on Sherbrooke Street one of the main arteries of Montreal, in the heart of the district my Dad liked so much.
I will write on Rodin and the secret of his Atelier in another post, it was beautifully curated and gave me a new understanding of Rodin the sculptor and how he worked, something I had not seen before in other exhibits.
Tu as bien raison, Laurent. Perdre un parent c’est perdre une partie de soi. La lassitude que tu ressens est tout à fait normal. Nous te gardons dans nos prières et nos pensées.
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I so want to get on a fast train and come give you a big tittied Texas hug..
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Thanks
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I look forward to Rodin post. I hope things get better soon.
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Laurent, I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. I remember that lovely post when you wrote about travelling around Greece with him. Losing a parent at any age is major, no matter how anticipated. Everyone seems to adjust, but who knows how much pain each person carries around? And turning out the departed’s worldly goods is traumatic at the best of times – how much more so when so many of them are associated with your own growing up. Thoughts with you from us both.
Sounds like you both need to treat yourselves with at least a week in one of Via Butera 28’s apartments. Nicoletta and Gioacchino would look after you well. This is just me thinking that Sicily would be a tonic at any time. So far, perhaps, I view it through rose-coloured spectacles.
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Thank you for your kind words. I fully agree Sicily is a tonic and Palermo a favoured city.
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Your photographs always tell the narrative in more than an ordinary way even without the accompanying words.
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Thank you so much for your kind compliment.
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well said.
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Hello, I am sorry to hear about you losing your father. Reading through your blog posts, much of what you said resonated with me and took me back over ten years ago when my own father died. I remembered how difficult the time was, how I wanted to honour him. To hold onto memories and possessions in hope he would still have a presence, and even after the end, not leave. I still do that occasionally and have to smile to myself. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Take care and all the best. Bob
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Laurent:
BTW- he was VERY proud of you.
Matthew
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