OFTEN I will blog about someone I know, or have met, that is a motorcycle enthusiast.
IT'S not often I do a blog about someone who isn't. He did ride and use 'Quads' so I guess that qualifies him :)
Ivan Beaudry was a family member. True, he and my eldest niece divorced some 11 years ago.
I once asked him "why, what happened" and he gave me an unexpected but in my case, entirely believable explanation, and oddly enough it had little to do with his actual marriage to Liz.
I am writing this blog for a number of reasons, the least of which is that Ivan and I are about the same age. Sure I've had my difficulties, getting run over several times, heart attacks, killer marital stresses etc but Ivan was in a league of his own when it came to medical issues.
He suffered through many strokes after their divorce, being brought back from the brink several times.
A leg amputated, inability to work, followed by money issues, ruthless and thoughtless people taking advantage of him, the beat goes on as we all know. We all have "stuff" in our overloaded file boxes to deal with. In Ivan's case, it seemed that once on his own, he got caught in that vortex like a fly flushing down the drain, and despite support from his former wife in lending him an ear, a spare bed, supper... he could not seem to ever get back on his feet so to speak.
Finally, he succumbed to his many ailments and died this week. He was back home in Quebec, with his traditional family, some of whom I met over the years.
So why is this news, why is it worthy of a blog? After all there is absolutely NOTHING unusual about Ivan and his demise, millions of people every day have similar stories. Maybe that's why I am blogging about his death. We are all so caught up these days in the speed at which the world is traveling that I thought, perhaps Ivan deserved at least what little acknowledgement I could grant him in my blog.
He was an easy going guy, something French Cdns are not particularly noted for. We think of them as temperamental and fiery, hands flaying the air with gestures... "Tabernac!"
I will always remember him from my various visits, as a guy that cherished simple things, his deep voice that could have been in radio some other decade, his annual hunting expeditions which in his case was always to put venison on the table. His off beat sense of 'uma, and of course sitting next to him at their home in Beaumont, feet up on the coffee table, watching the Montreal Canadians in the Stanley Cup or in a cold community rink, watching his son Jesse on the ice.
Ivan leaves behind no real legacy, he did not cure cancer, he wasn't an actor or a sports star, he didn't make ridiculous amounts of money, he wasn't a cross dressing lying, baby shaking politician. Nope...
He was just one of us billions that struggle along through life as best we can.
Ivan was just your average Joe.
He loved his family he told me, even if he hard a hard time saying it.
He got lost and never could find his way after that. Which of us hasn't been there at some point? I know I have.
You've had a tough go of it big guy, now you can rest in peace.
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