It's rarely good news when the phone rings at 2 am.
In the early hours, Ben called to tell me that Gordie passed away yesterday evening. He had been sick for some time, and was on & off the liver transplant list a few times in the past year or two.
Apparently his condition worsened in the past few days. Both the boys were able to make it to Edmonton in time to be with him. That was nice to hear. I know it's so easy to say "he cared so much about his kids"... who doesn't, right? But Eric & Andre were truly the center of Gordie's life. I think we all saw that. Growing up, Eric and Andre's house was always the hub of activity.
Gordie did everything imaginable, and many thing unimaginable, to make their home a fun, exciting place for his boys and their friends.
Want to build a fort? Gordie had the nails & wood
Want to watch movies,? Gordie had a movie theater popcorn machine
Want to blow things up with firecracker? Gordie had matches
Want to go sliding? Heck, Gordie had a hill.
Gordie always had a project or fiasco on the go, usually of significant scope. You realized after a while that if you were around, say watching a movie, you were also ON CALL. At any moment, Gordie could storm downstairs to announce the crisis at hand and the solution he had dreamt up.
The truck is stuck
The boat came off its mooring and is on the sandbar
It's -25 and the VW won't start
A neighbor's basement is flooded
It was never, ever a "duty". You always felt important... he had chosen YOU to help save the day. He KNEW that with your help, we could get it done.
And he always did get it done... that was the amazing thing.
You learned over time that with your help, some crow bars, and a piece of rope tied to a piece of chain connected to a 4x4 that you used for leverage, Gordie could take on just about anything the world threw at him. You'd make it home hours later... pants torn, soaking wet, dog tired. But you'd feel like you just grew a foot. You had just taken on the forces of nature with Gordie Chuch, and by christ you had won.
For a kid that didn't know how to swing a hammer, start an outboard or even how to spit properly, I sure learned a lot.
Gordie and I had our ups & downs over the years, but it would be impossible to say how different I’d be without his influence.
It's not even that Gordie taught us how to do anything is particular... but he taught us all we needed was some gumption, some tools and a couple friends. I can tell you that I still live that to this day.
Tonight I'll raise a glass of rum & coke in his memory.
In the early hours, Ben called to tell me that Gordie passed away yesterday evening. He had been sick for some time, and was on & off the liver transplant list a few times in the past year or two.
Apparently his condition worsened in the past few days. Both the boys were able to make it to Edmonton in time to be with him. That was nice to hear. I know it's so easy to say "he cared so much about his kids"... who doesn't, right? But Eric & Andre were truly the center of Gordie's life. I think we all saw that. Growing up, Eric and Andre's house was always the hub of activity.
Gordie did everything imaginable, and many thing unimaginable, to make their home a fun, exciting place for his boys and their friends.
Want to build a fort? Gordie had the nails & wood
Want to watch movies,? Gordie had a movie theater popcorn machine
Want to blow things up with firecracker? Gordie had matches
Want to go sliding? Heck, Gordie had a hill.
Gordie always had a project or fiasco on the go, usually of significant scope. You realized after a while that if you were around, say watching a movie, you were also ON CALL. At any moment, Gordie could storm downstairs to announce the crisis at hand and the solution he had dreamt up.
The truck is stuck
The boat came off its mooring and is on the sandbar
It's -25 and the VW won't start
A neighbor's basement is flooded
It was never, ever a "duty". You always felt important... he had chosen YOU to help save the day. He KNEW that with your help, we could get it done.
And he always did get it done... that was the amazing thing.
You learned over time that with your help, some crow bars, and a piece of rope tied to a piece of chain connected to a 4x4 that you used for leverage, Gordie could take on just about anything the world threw at him. You'd make it home hours later... pants torn, soaking wet, dog tired. But you'd feel like you just grew a foot. You had just taken on the forces of nature with Gordie Chuch, and by christ you had won.
For a kid that didn't know how to swing a hammer, start an outboard or even how to spit properly, I sure learned a lot.
Gordie and I had our ups & downs over the years, but it would be impossible to say how different I’d be without his influence.
It's not even that Gordie taught us how to do anything is particular... but he taught us all we needed was some gumption, some tools and a couple friends. I can tell you that I still live that to this day.
Tonight I'll raise a glass of rum & coke in his memory.
1 Comments:
Jake,
What a fine tribute to Gordie you have written. Gordie's flair fer fixin' was always legendary and he was the "go-to" guy for every community he lived in.
Gordie's epoch sense of family - of support and caring for the people he loved and those he drew into that circle - will leave all of us who joined him and his family for any length of time with fine memories.
For me, it's that beaten-to-shit round table in the basement in Westfield that we used as a percussion percussion instrument singing along to Godspell. No ... wait ... it's the time we casually mentioned that we might put up a wall in the TV room on Champlain Street for Sam. A sledge hammer, 45 minutes and fifteen 2 x 4's later and the wall was framed in. No! No! Wait!! It was the time the street flooded and we had 10 inches of water in the basement and he arrived and started shoveling snow to divert the water ... or was it talking so lovingly of Anne - the perfect girl he had met and married in a heartbeat one summer long ago ... popcorn on the end of every limb on the Christmas Tree ... Thanksgiving Dinner at the cottage ... rum and coke ...
To Gordie.
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