A unique, final and beautiful day in Saint-Laurent

Today was my Mom's funeral service. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, for October it felt like mid-summer.
Both families came and it was nice to see cousins, aunts and uncles and other friends gather for this remembrance of her life.

moments before the start of the Requiem Mass

My Dad had picked her favourite flowers, two big bouquets of White Roses mix in with 3 yellow roses to symbolize us, her 3 kids. I had previously made the musical arrangements for this sung Requiem Mass in the very same Chapel of the Saint-Laurent Parish Church where my parents were married 58 years ago. The old bells from the towering belfry pealed before and after the service, they had the sound of ages past.

The priest who officiated at the service Father Yvon Cousineau entire family, he told us, are from Ville Saint-Laurent. He conducted a beautiful service which I found to be inspired. Julie Berthiaume was the Soprano who sang accompanied by the organ.

The parish cemetery at the rear of the Church goes back 290 years and several generations are buried there as you can see by reading the monuments amongst the old trees. I recognized the names of several other families who married into ours. It has a feeling of a familiar place, of home, of people we once knew or had heard of.

Will said a few words in Eulogy and I am very happy he did, he was not sure at first if he wanted to do it but he certainly brought back wonderful memories and I also delivered a Eulogy to her as the person we children remembered best.

It was a very dignified and beautiful service and I am very happy that we could do this for my mother. Afterwards several of us went to the cemetery to see the old Gougeon family stone monument which has been standing on that spot since 1790 with the 3 symbols carved into it, a laurel wreath, a star of Bethlehem and two hands in reconciliation. It has been there as a marker for 220 years, difficult to understand in this age of technology. My Mom as was her wish, will be buried there in the Spring where her parents, grand-parents, other siblings and ancestors rest.

Le Jour du Souvenir

Remembrance Day was instituted to commemorate the end of the First World War on the 11th hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month in 1918.

I was at a ceremony in the Rotonda of Tabaret Hall at the University of Ottawa on Laurier street. The event was presided by our former Governor General and Commander in Chief, the Right Honourable Mikaëlle Jean.  The University Archivist had arranged an exhibit and I noticed two new plaques on the wall with the names of all the University Students who being over 18 years of age had volunteered to go to war. There were more than 1000 names, I was amazed looking at all those names, imagine 98 years ago all these young people stepping forward to go to war. At a time when people did not travel much if at all, to go to Europe by transport ship on often rough seas, knowing that you might die and never see your loved ones again. But they were motivated and thought enough of their country Canada or the Empire or God knows what, to simply go, to serve. What made me think was the fact that today in 2012 the University has about 60,000 students back in 1918 the University had less than 5,000 students, so a large proportion of them went to war.

The University had a remembrance ceremony every year until 1978. I was attending Ottawa U. then and I remember that a group of student was against such ceremony to remember our war dead. The reason being at the time that such ceremonies simply glorified war, those who served where either naive fools or part of some kind of Capitalist conspiracy. So the University President at the time an elderly priest who did not want any trouble simply caved in and the ceremony of remembrance was done away with. It was only in 1998 that it was re-instated. I remember encountering back in the 1970's and 1980's such anti-war sentiment, a lot of it had to do with the end of the Vietnam War in Asia and many people had arguments that were half-baked but were considered nonetheless by society in general. There was a real confusion on the past and the present and many who voiced opposition came from comfortable backgrounds and had never wanted for nothing in their lives. They could judge others actions without ever having met them.

Today in Canada more and more people participate in commemoration ceremony, there is a better understanding of what sacrifice means and what these men and women did for us. Maybe this is because of Afghanistan and the 10 years Canadian troops served there for a war we do not fully understand. But we can certainly understand the First or Second World War and the Korean conflict.

We should never forget their sacrifice and remember to thank those who returned for what they did.