Road Trip to Montreal

As was expected The haggis's relative from Montreal passed away.

We might have not found out about it in time, had it not been for the fact that I slept in on Thursday morning.

-Let me explain that.

Thursday morning the Haggis went to work a bit early, at 8am he was out the door and I was still in bed. I rolled over and thought "Just another 5 minutes and I'll get up"
The next thing I knew the phone was ringing and it was 9:45am - fifteen minutes after I should have been at school. I was so groggy and befuddled I didn't bother answering the phone, but checked the call display. Someone from Montreal had called, and I realized that could mean nothing good. I called Montreal and got the details. By two O'clock The Haggis's Sister and her boyfriend were on there way to Montreal, and the Haggis and I were making our final arrangements to leave.

We left a little later than I would have liked, and did not arrive in Montreal until Nine PM. The next Morning the Haggis and His sister went to the air port to pick up there parents.

Haggis's father was very depressed looking, and understandably as "H" (The relative that passed away) represented for him the last of the Montreal family. These were the people who basically rescued him (haggis's father) and his family from immigration limbo by sponsoring them to come to Canada.

Just as bad, (I suspect) as the death of a friend and rescuer, is the fact that this man is close to him in age.

"Family is getting smaller and smaller, Cemetery is getting bigger and bigger." Haggis's father mutterd.

As we sat in the funeral home Synagogue, listening to a Cantor sing with the voice of an angel, I was stuck by the fact that this was at least the fourth time that I have been in this particular funeral home.

This was a difficult trip for the Haggis, He too is feeling the loss of the Montreal family, and the death of "H" is reminding him all too keenly of his parents mortality.

Its bitterly sobering.

We all swore that we would try to get out to Montreal and visit the remaining family under better circumstances.

Days of the Dead

Its that time of year again, when the pagans and the Mexicans acknowledge those who have passed before us. This year feels strange.

Some months ago a woman I was once very close to died. I had not been in touch with her for a very long time. When found out that she had died I felt very badly that I had lost contact with her. It took me some time to remember that I had parted company with her for some very good reasons, and when I had tried to reconnect with her, she never picked up the ball. Still... it felt very strange to be at her funeral knowing that the last time we had seen each other we weren't exactly on good terms.

My very good friend Stephanie Lang, reminded me just before the funeral that "d" had been "Prickly" and she was quite certain that I was not the only one attending the funeral that felt oddly about the whole thing.

So here we are in the days when the pagans feel that the veils between the two worlds are at there thinnest and if we invite them, the dead will join us for a short time.

What do I say to "d"?

I don't know if you can hear this, but I do wish that things had worked out differently, that we hadn't hurt each other so much that we had to run away from each other. You didn't have an easy life, I hope that you found some peace and some happiness, if not during your life time, then certainly now in your afterlife.

And now in this strange in between time, I find myself standing in between life and death.

This morning we got a phone call from the Haggis's parents. One of the relatives in Montreal is very ill and has very little time to live. His family is on death watch as I type. Across the Provence a couple that we dearly love awaits the birth of there second child.

It's an odd sort of balance.