Remembering Blake
It’s not an easy thing to do justice in a few words to a friendship that has existed for close to seventy years. Classmates at Westmount Senior High in the ‘Fifties’ and graduating from Bishop’s together in 1959.
There were some serious gaps of years between then and now where we were not in touch. That didn’t seem to matter: whenever we reconnected it was instantaneous picking up and carrying on.
Beeker, as I liked to call him, was a pal. A friend without pretention. One knew he cared about his friends by the way he lit up in your company: the intensity of his attention, and the way he listened so actively. He loved to laugh and his fulsome guffaws filled whatever space he occupied.
Besides our friendship, another love we shared was moules et frites. Judy and I well remember several dinners at Restaurent L’Actuel on Dominion Square in Montreal where we, together with Celie and Blake, made mountains of mussels disappear…washed down with appropriate Belgian beer.
Our last outing together was to Hudson, Quebec a couple of years ago, to the Village Theatre where Blake and Jeanne joined Judy & me and fellow Bishopites Peter (& Maja) Blaikie and Bruce (& Maureen) Prentice for a matinee and supper following. Beeker’s smile and demeanor left no doubt that this, for him, was a ‘red letter day’.
Great memories, old pal. You’ll be missed.
Philip Johnston
January 16th, 2021
