Posted on October 3, 2013 under Thursday Tidbits with 2 comments

Well, it’s back to the grind after an incredible week or so on the old rollercoaster that is life.

The fundraiser is over and the money is still coming in: a little over $6200 with more to come. Still hoping to hit $7500. My videographer is currently editing the footage taken at the event and I hope to have clips or even full stories to post on my website in the not too distant future. We are doing another performance in a few weeks time for the Sisters of St. Martha as they were unable to come to our show because of a retreat. We have had several requests to do another show sometime. Maybe we could do a Christmas special. We’ll see.

My book is in the home stretch. The stories have all been chosen and we’re just finalizing the cover picture and a few other house keeping items. Thought I would let you know that the official launch of the book is Thursday, December 5th. at 7:00 p.m. at People’s Place Library. If you would like to pre-order a copy from the original run, please let me know. I plan to do a few readings at the launch and will have books available for sale @ $14.99 . I will be accepting cash, Visa or Mastercard. Great for Christmas presents or the outhouse if you’re still using one. Refreshments will be served.

As mentioned earlier in the week, I have a story coming up called “Mistaken Identities.” The night of our fundraiser, there was another event going on just down the hallway: Sex Toy Bingo. I’m almost certain they don’t play this at the hall in Pomquet. The story centers around two couples and how taking a wrong turn resulted in some confusion.

My brother was home for the funeral last weekend . Did you see my story in The Casket? Some people who read this in other parts of the world and weren’t born here, thought that the name of the paper was part of the humour in the story. The story was, after all “buried” in the back section of The Casket. How good is that! Anyway, my brother was telling me about a race that he took part in many years ago where he finished first in his age group. He was startled by the result being a “middle of the pack” kind of guy. He came clean to me at our 5:15 a.m. coffee get together the other day. Look for the story “Pegged For Success” in the next week or so.

Just asking. Someone commented that my posts are too frequent. Fair or foul?

I’m off to the Georgetown conference in PEI today  and have my 40th homecoming from X this weekend.

And over 3000 views of “Lou’s Last Laugh.” Thanks for your support.

Posted on October 1, 2013 under Storytelling with 5 comments

Once you reach a certain age, surprises are few and far between.  There’s not much you haven’t seen or heard, especially in an age when any occurrence can be beamed around the world in a heartbeat.  If you haven’t been to the pyramids, you can take a virtual tour.  If you want to experience lift off in a spacecraft, just go to the Kennedy Space Center and climb aboard the simulator.

I have seen Bobby Orr play hockey and sat a few rows away from the front of the stage listening to Paul McCartney sing “Hey Jude.”   You do become blasé because, one way or another, you’ve seen it all.

Or at least you think you have.

My brother in law, Lou Brosha, passed away last week after suffering a devastating stroke.  Family and friends travelled from near and far to pay tribute to one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet.  Lou was many things.  He was a great raconteur, a better than average card player and he loved his Blue Jays and Habs.  And, of course, the Tories!  Before he and my sister, Eleanor, had relocated to Nova Scotia, they lived in Northern Alberta.  It was there that he lived his twin passions of hunting and fishing.

And he was known to have a little drink of rum to keep the chill off when it was forty below … and in the summer when it was forty above.

On a sparkling, sun-dappled day, family and friends met at the small church in Heatherton.   This is the community where he spent his early years, a member of a large and well respected family.

It’s never easy saying goodbye.

I was given the honor of doing one of the readings during the funeral Mass.  I was handed my script five minutes before entering the church.  I stared at the text with amusement as I read the second line:

“As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation …” (A reading from the second letter of Saint Paul to Timothy (4:6-8).  I was wondering how I would keep a straight face when my turn came.

The service was beautiful and the music uplifting, but when the end was near and incense was wafting through the air, you sensed the moment of dread when the final farewell inevitably comes.

The undertaker made his way down the aisle and stopped to give his condolences to my sister.  He seemed to linger longer than is the custom.  And then I saw a wide grin on her face.  The undertaker continued up to the altar and whispered something in the priest’s ear.  Something was amiss.

Within minutes the word was filtering through the crowd.  In school we used to play “Pass the Word”, in which a message would get garbled and twisted as it was whispered down the line.  As chuckles rippled in waves toward the back of the church, it was evident that there had been nothing lost in the interpretation of the original communique.

There was a skunk in Lou’s grave.

The priest, trying his best to maintain his composure, indicated that “due to complications at the gravesite,” the burial was being postponed until the following day.  It certainly wasn’t weather-related.

It is not uncommon to see tears as the coffin is wheeled out of a church after a funeral Mass.  Imagine the surprise at the back of the church, where the message had not yet arrived, to see every member of the funeral party, including the priest and the undertaker, with grins a mile wide on their faces.

By the time the last person exited the church, there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen.

Apparently the day before, the grave diggers had completed their job and had left the grave uncovered.   During the night a skunk happened to wander by and fell in.

The congregation poured into the adjacent hall and enjoyed a lovely lunch, standard business in small rural communities.  Jokes and one-liners filled the air as one of Louis’ sons recalled how his dad had “skunked him” not long ago playing crib.

The graveyard was a short walk from the church.  My curiosity got the better of me.  I had to see it with my own eyes, as disrespectful as it seemed.  I carefully unhooked the cemetery gate, realizing later that this entrance was rarely used.  I came around a grove of trees and soon realized that I was just about the last person to join the party.  The entire Brosha clan was gathered around the gravesite, seemingly paying their respects to a sleeping skunk.

It was a scene that would have surprised Lazarus himself.

The night before the funeral, a dear old friend of Lou came to pay his respects at the funeral home.  Charlie Landry is a well-known trapper and pest remover.  He and Lou were kindred spirits and shared many stories over the years about wildlife.

There was a stir in the crowd as suddenly a camera crew arrived in the graveyard.  Following on its heels was Charlie, a live trap in hand.  Recently Charlie has become famous, as the Discovery Channel is doing a reality TV series featuring his trapping expeditions.

Charlie spoke briefly and then lowered the trap with a chain.  He baited it with three-day-old cake.

It didn’t take any time at all for Charlie to wake the skunk and moments later, it was hauled to the surface.   There was loud applause from the crowd which had swelled to include just about everyone who had assembled in the church not long before.

Charlie posed for the cameras and then shared an embrace with the deceased’s wife.

Everyone agreed that Lou had, indeed, gotten the last laugh.

 

 

 

Posted on September 30, 2013 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

I hardly know where to start.

Unless your computer crashed on the weekend or you were at a retreat, you have probably heard something about this now famous skunk. It ended up in my brother in laws grave the day of his funeral. The burial had to be postponed for a day. With permission from the family I have documented the entire episode from start to finish. And for once, every word is true. No embellishments this time around. So, coming tomorrow evening, ” Lou’s Last Laugh.”

We now know why we didn’t get a sellout the other evening for our fundraiser. We had competition just down the hall, in the same building. Wait for this… we were going toe to toe with Sex Toy Bingo. I had to Google it . I simply could not let this one pass without a story. So, coming later this week I have a story about what may have happened if two couples, one old and one young, had each unwittingly gone to the wrong event. It’s called “Mistaken Identities.”

And I haven’t forgotten about the Goodman department store story. The skunk kind of threw everything off schedule including my stories.

I am down to the wire getting things ready for the book. It will be printed in the next three weeks.

I have my 40th. homecoming later this week and I am also attending the Georegtown Conference in P.E.I. It’s going to be another busy week but you guys are all busy too.

Have a good one!