My Aunt Marian died in September at her home in
Los Angeles, and Dot's brother Armand passed away in December just before Christmas, in the Magdalen Islands.
Armand and Marguerite on their 50th Anniversery
During our visit October 2003Leo Jodoin's wife Carmen died unexpectedly - we had visited her in Montreal, during our trip East 2 years ago. Leo was one of my very best friends, and Carmen was the picture of vitality when we saw her.
And sweet and wonderful Emi Kawamoto, the "mother" of all our four dogs, including Chiba, died suddenly in San Francisco on June 9th, having travelled there for medical tests from her home in Honolulu.
Four of my pilot friends died also during 2005 - who said flying was dangerous?
Boeing Instructor Pilot G.I. Jones died in Florida. He was a Boeing training pilot in 1968 when we first worked together at Nordair in Montreal. Later on, through the power of the internet, we re-connected after he found my activities on the 737 Prototype airplane. We became close friends and emailed back and forth almost daily for several years.
Nordair Captain Julie Sesia died in Montreal; we flew much together. Julie was a shortish fellow with impish eyes and a wide wonderful grin. He had a sensational memory and a colorful flying career. In his early days he spent summers flying surveyors around northern Quebec in a float plane, creating maps of a previously uncharted land.
And both former Nordair Chief Pilots passed away - John Smith in Victoria, B.C. and John "Mordy" Morden in Nova Scotia. Like G.I. Jones, John Smith was a close friend and frequent email correspondent. With a name like Captain John Smith, I was always asking him about Pochahantas. John was a Brit who learned to fly in Mesa, Arizona, and flew for the RAF during WW II.
In October, our next door neighbor in Hansville, Walt Baker, passed away, after a sudden and short illness.
And finally two of Dot's good friends were impacted by sudden deaths - her dancing partner Marge Scharf was killed in an auto accident on Highway 522 just outside Monroe, followed quickly by the husband of Pat Griffin, one of her Homemaker's Club pals, in another head-on crash outside Monroe - this time on Highway 2.
"Singing in the Rain" - Dot on left, Marge on rightMay all their friends and families find strength in their time of sadness.
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