Gordon Denis Comeau
August 31, 1923 - February 8, 2009.
These pictures were taken the last time I visited my father at the Ridgewood Personal Care Home in Saint John New Brunswick. I am struck by how old he looked and how much he looked like his mother, my grandmother Comeau. She was 86 when she died, too.
My father had been sick for a long time and it was no surprise when my sister phoned me to tell me he had died. He left us a bit of a mess, because we can't find a will, so we are trying to get my cousin appointed to look after his affairs.
We will put his ashes in the ground beside my mother in Ottawa. My sisters and I will have a little graveside ceremony in the summer after the ground has thawed.
My father was born into an Acadian french family and in order to make it easier for him to get a job, he was encouraged to speak only English. I regret that our family lost the French language. He was the youngest of six children and his father died when he was about 14.
My father joined the RCAF in 1939 when he was only 16 and a half. Apparently he lied about his age because they only took 17 year-olds. I've seen a picture of him in those days and he was quite handsome with his blonde hair and blue eyes. He spent WWII in northern England as an aero-engine technician. It was quite uneventful. My father told me the only time there was any bombing at the airfield where he was stationed he was away on holiday.
When he returned from Europe he met my mother and they married on August 3, 1946. My parents had a total of 8 children, but three died in childbirth or were stillborn. We moved around every few years as my father was transferred by the RCAF.
My father was a UN peacekeeper in the Congo in 1960. My family went to live in Germany in the late 1960s for three years but I had already met and married my husband Dennis by then so I was no longer at home. He retired from the Air Force and lived in Ottawa with my mother until she died in 1990.
In recent years he had many health problems and was diagnosed with dementia in 2006. He lived the last few years of his life in the city where he was born, Saint John, New Brunswick.
I think about the good times we had as a family, birthday parties, camping, going on trips. His death has made me remember and feel again the loss of my mother and my brother, Gordie.
Upcoming sad days for me - tomorrow, Feb. 16, 38-month anniversary of Dennis' death. And Tuesday, Feb. 17 would have been our anniversary. I have lived 1168 days without him and still not a day goes by that I don't miss him.
I apologize to my friends for letting so much time go by without a blog posting, but I have been extremely busy getting Sapphire Studio set up. We now have our first 6 month renter and a possibility of two more. This is excellent news. We may be able to start paying the bills.
We had a celebration of our opening last Friday and a good time was had by all.
Other happy news is that my sister is buying a business she has had her eye on for several years. It is a ladies' consignment clothing store called Classic Closet. I am really really happy for her and wish her well in her new venture.
One never knows what life will bring. Sadness and happiness and sadness in the same week.
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~ Albert Pike
