Thoughts of my Dad are forever intertwined with the adventures and travel we were so fortunate to experience as a family. Growing up in various countries around the world instilled a wanderlust from an early age. A sense of place in our global community went hand in hand with a restlessness to keep on exploring around the next corner, to keep on climbing onto the next ridge top to see what lay beyond. Our dad supported our desires to discover new experiences through our personal endeavours. I often recall a day my sister and I had on a river with him in the mountains of Colombia. We would scamper up the shores of this fast flowing river and throw ourselves into the current to be swept downstream. Dad was waiting for us, arms outstretched to catch us. I’m not entirely sure where we would of ended up if he had ‘missed’ us on the way by. As a child we tend to amplify our memories, and to me the river was a raging cauldron of water and consequences most certainly would of been dire were we to be swept downstream…. It is this wild and visceral exploration of life under the watchful guidance of my father that I will always remember. It is a virtue that I am integrating into the growth and daily lives of my daughters. We hope to find our place in this wide world of wonder, while maintaining a respect for its inhabitants and their environment. I’ll miss you dad, your legacy will live on in my daughters and thus will accompany me in all my days.
Love Christopher
Sunsets, emojis, Mexico, family, parties, pizza, work, life & love …
I keep trying to see you or feel your presence in the sunrises and sunsets, in my children’s eyes, in the wind, in the birds perched in my trees. I saw a beautiful red cardinal the other morning looking in my window and felt certain it was you watching over me. Checking in to see how I’m doing.
I miss your FaceTime calls where I could only see the top half of your head or just the ceiling. I miss getting your text messages full of funny emojis.
Dad you have always been there and now you are not. I try to think that it’s like when you went on business trips for work or like last winter when you went to Mexico for 2 months. You weren’t physically here but you stayed in touch. You sent me emails and text messages and pictures. You called me every few days. Even if not to say too much.
There was so much I wanted to write in your obituary that I didn’t get to. So I’m writing here some of the things that pop into my head when I think about you. Things that I will remember and miss.
You loved your family, especially your grandchildren, and wanted the best for us. You also expected the best from us.
You loved Mexico. You loved taking us to the markets there and showing us the bright colours, smells and sounds and showing us it was “mostly” safe to eat the freshly prepared food.
You wanted me to speak Spanish and I love that most of your text messages to me in the last year were in Spanish.
You loved parties. You loved music, good food and drinks and you loved dancing.
You loved traveling the world and especially planning our family trips to Mexico.
You were very generous and you cared a lot. Sometimes you had a hard time expressing it in words but you made up for it in kind gestures.
You could be very stubborn. Sometimes you commented, with a grin, on seeing that stubbornness in your children and grandchildren. I think you were sort of pleased that it had been passed on.
You were a romantic. You loved Valentine’s Day and showing your love with cards, cinnamon hearts and flowers.
You impacted a lot of lives in Africa, Latin America and Canada. You would have loved to hear from all the people we’ve heard from in the past weeks since you passed on. You would have brushed their attention off but inside you would have been proud and touched. I am proud of the life you lived and the legacy you’ve left.
You loved life and you lived a full life. We had a big family reunion in February of this year for which I will always be thankful. Such great memories and ones that I hope will keep our connections strong with our family in Mexico.
You came to Canada from warm countries and embraced winter and learned to ski and spend time outside with us in the cold.
You loved your pizza oven you built and making pizzas for family and friends. Years ago in my childhood home you built a stone BBQ and loved to host big parties that people still talk about fondly. You were very generous.
You loved playing squash and tennis and golf and loved the friends you made and the socializing that came with the yearly golf getaway weekends you went on for years.
You loved your work in the development field and believed in the projects you worked on to help Canadians share their skills overseas and to support youth with education and livelihood training. You taught and worked on projects in Africa and Latin America for SUCO, WUSC, CIDA, Save the Children Fund and even after retiring continued working as a volunteer in Africa for SACO and CESO.
I know that I was lucky to have you as my Dad and that we were all lucky to have you here as long as we did.
You left the world a better place and I know you will be greatly missed by many.
I hope you will continue to watch over our family like you always have.
I love you Dad. I will remember you always and I promise to carry you forward with me by continuing to hold dear the things you believed in, by directing the love I have for you into my family and by sharing with others everything you taught me.
Love Katz
❤️ Grandpa JP loved his grandchildren and they love him and will miss him ❤️