Saturday, July 25, 2015

One of Life's Fleeting Moments



Hiya! How’re you doing today? Got time for a coffee and a VT? Why not, eh? Say...I want to tell you about someone Nong and I met recently...

A couple weekends ago, we were out for our daily walk. It was a bright, sunny day and we were walking down Pitt St on our way to Cornwall Square. We happened to see a sign about an antique store just around the corner on 4th St.   

Always interested in odd stuff, we decided to stop in for a quick look. We met the owner and we chatted with him for 20-30 minutes about this, that and the other (such as the mandolin he had on the wall, e.g.). He seemed like a cheerful fellow. There were a couple of things I was interested in and promised I’d come back. Then we left and went on our way.

The fellow we met was John James Earle and he died less than a week later as a result of a scuba diving accident.

Life is strange, isn’t it? Sometimes people come into your life, even fleetingly, and now that I know more about him from the obits in the local papers - Standard Freeholder and Cornwall Seaway News, and despite his being 30 years younger than I am, I wish I had known him. Don’t know what will happen to his antique shop Earle’s Vintage (which was in his garage) but even if it remains open, I doubt it will be the same.

Born in 1972, John was a well-known fellow in town... an artist; ran for MPP; movie maker; sang and played in several bands including Rapunzel’s Tower, co-creator of a board game, always a new project on the go or thinking about (kind of like yours truly). Despite never smoking, John developed and survived tongue cancer... as a result of which, his singing ability was curtailed.  He loved to hunt and fish and from what I hear just loved life. Rest in peace, John.

20-30 minutes is not long enough to know someone...

See ya, eh.

Bob             

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