Monday, May 7, 2018
I am so sorry to hear of Cousin Barry's passing. I have many fond memories Barry over the years.
Going to Prince Albert and "staying with the Brelands" was always a fun time in the summer. Barry taught me to play chess there one summer, and another summer he taught me all about the the things he was learning with Army Cadets. Years later we ran into each other when both of our Reserve units were on a joint exercise in the forest south of Prince Albert. Barry pulled rank and made sure I was called away from cleaning weapons for "special meeting" with himself of course, so I got to skip out on all the dirty work while we visited !
I asked Barry to be one of my best men at my wedding because he was always such a good buddy when we were growing up together. I was very happy when he accepted.
Barry stopped in for a visit at our home in Ottawa one time when he was there for the Honour Guard Ceremony on Parliament Hill. He mentioned at one point during the visit that he had heard people in Quebec were not always friendly to English speakers.
I said I didn't think so, so we immediately headed across the river at Cumberland and randomly picked a little bar in a small town called Thurso, Quebec.
We settled in, and within 15 minutes Barry was talking hunting stories with a French Canadian who had once hunted in Saskatchewan ! After a few drinks, the guy asked us if we were Montreal Canadian fans. I jumped in and said we were both fans, (given where we were). Next he asked if we were fans of Guy LaFleur. Again I jumped in and said yes we were and we had watched him growing up.
The guy stands up and says, great, let's go over to his house for a beer. Barry and I were like, what? But we went out and followed this guy in our car to a small house in the town.
We all get out and go to the door of the house, he knocks, no one is home and he says, no matter, let's go in for a beer.
Barry and I sheepishly walk into the strange house, but the guy opens the fridge and gets out some beer for us at the kitchen table. While having the beer I ask him if he is a relative or if he lives there and he says no, he is just a big Guy LaFleur fan and this is the house Guy grew up in. He says Guy's mother is out somewhere walking and she will be back soon.
We are feeling kind of strange drinking beer from someone's house when we were not really invited, but eventually Mrs. LaFleur shows up. This guy explains to her that we are huge fans and that Barry had come all the way from Saskatchewan to Thurso hoping to see where Guy grew up. (stretching the truth a bit :)
She was then very happy we were there and offered us yet another beer from her fridge, and then went upstairs and brought down some autographed posters and other small memorabilia for us to take as souvenirs from Guy. We had a nice visit and eventually left.
On the way back we were both still really impressed at how incredibly friendly both her and the guy from the bar were. We would be hard pressed to imaging that even happening in Saskatchewn !! It was a fun evening.
Anyhow, I would like to express condolences to the whole family, and especially Kelly, Paige, and Colin. Your dad was a great guy, and I was really sorry to hear he passed.
My apologies, but I cannot easily come back to the funeral from Haiti as I am already booked to come home a week later for Alex's wedding. Sally will bring my parents up, and represent our family.
I hope these stories and memories of Barry help you through this difficult time.
Richard Phillips
