Well, it has been a whirlwind week. Winston Evans passed away on June 2nd. He had brain surgery in January to remove a tumour and when Jason and I went to see him in March, he seemed to recovering well. It turns out that the cancer had spread to his spine and was inoperable. I am going to quote my facebook post below on the matter as it seems to succinctly sum up my thoughts on my journey to Ottawa to say goodbye:
"One last hurrah with the man, the legend, Winston Evans. It has been a whirlwind couple of days with lots of highs and lows. The highs were meeting Winston's Ottawa friends and co-workers, who confirmed that Winston remained as generous and brilliant as always. One of my favourite quotes about him was something to the effect of "after 2 days we realized he was the smartest guy in the room, and after about a month I realized he might be the smartest person I have ever met."... I am so glad we made it to Ottawa and reconnected with old friends, met lots of new friends, and were able to share our memories of Winston. He was an enigma and we all had little pieces of the puzzle to share with each other. When all is said and done, the message I am taking out of this comes from Winston himself from the poem he wrote for Andrew when he was born. The poem talk about life's journey being full of ups and downs and the last two lines are "Close your eyes and understand, that the bad was good, and the good was grand." You were a classy, generous, brilliant man, my friend. And you left us way too soon. Rest in peace, my friend. You will not be forgotten."
As tough as this was, some additional good came out of this journey for me. The usual realization that life is short and that we should be living it to the best of our ability and being present in the moment. Also, all 3 kids stepped up while Cheryl and I were away for 5 days. This was the first time we left them alone for that length of time and things went smoothly. Andrew stepped up on his own and mowed the whole lawn and organized the spreading of our cedar mulch. All 3 kids pitched in and kept the house running. I am hoping this is the start of a new stage where Cheryl and I can travel regularly knowing that the kids are mature enough to get along.
Looking forward to a relaxing summer. Gonna miss this guy a lot.
