Wednesday Night #1883

Fiona: Dad, your Wednesday-Night legacy lives on after more than 35 years. I bet you are here in spirit, and maybe a little frustrated that you can’t cut people off mid sentence. I loved hearing the memories that were shared tonight.

An amazing evening, with friends from every corner of our lives, offering touching tributes,  mostly tempered with humor,  and delightful insights regarding our quirky, brilliant, innovative, imaginative, and often impatient, Chairman. Truly, a night we will all remember.

P R E L U D E

Please forgive the repetition of news that some of you already have received, but I know that I have not reached everyone – faute de temps –  and especially not those who are not on Facebook.

I am afraid I must share very sad news.

David died peacefully on Sunday night after being admitted to emergency at the Verdun Hospital in late afternoon with a very high fever and very low blood pressure. At the hospital he was comatose and did not respond to my presence, but he was not in pain.
He did not suffer and I am so grateful that he did not have a long slow descent into dementia.
We were so fortunate that he lived on a plateau of Alzheimer’s for a very long time.
He broke his hip in February and was successfully operated on. Recently, as I could not give him the professional 24/7 care that he needed, he went to a long-term care facility where he received very good care,, but he really only wanted to come home.
Fiona spent a wonderful evening with him last Wednesday and I was with him on Saturday evening for a quiet couple of hours.
We are not sure yet, but the doctors think he was felled by C. difficile.
His brain has been donated to the newly-established brain bank http://publications.mcgill.ca/reporter/2018/01/canadian-brain-bank-network-to-advance-research-on-alzheimers-disease/  which is led by our good friend and David’s doctor, Howard Chertkow.

We have confirmed plans for the Celebration of David’s life – and celebration it will be! – at 3pm Friday the 27^th at the Mount Royal Funeral Complex/Complexe funéraire Mont-Royal
1297 Chemin de la Forêt
Outremont, Québec H2V 2P9

Fiona returned to Montreal from her Ottawa meetings on Monday morning and has been an absolute rock of support. She leaves for Calgary and points west on Thursday; she will return on the 23^rd.

Marc will arrive from Singapore on the 20^th and has assumed responsibility for orchestrating the ‘content’ of the memorial. We are thrilled that WN’s Diva, Susanna Eyton-Jones, will give musical voice to our celebration, while Brian Morel is beavering away on one of his remarkable videos.

We have been overwhelmed by the kindness and incredible support of so many of you – I will never know how to express my gratitude adequately.

Wednesday Nights continue – our Chairman would have it no other way, even if he is conducting a rival event in The Cloud with many of our friends who have preceded him.

Would love to see you this Wednesday – and next Wednesday with Peter Berezin, and all the other Wednesdays that will follow.

Forgive the lack of agenda for this week – I know you understand. For sure, however, as always, events in Washington (and the raid on Michael Cohen’s offices)  are on the menu,  Mark Zuckerberg at the Senate plus elections in Hungary,  the conflict in Syria and other hot spots around the globe along with simmering – possible constitutional – crisis over Kinder Morgan.

And, above all,  please join us on April 27^th and do spread the world in case I have missed anyone.