My great-grandma passed away this morning, while doing what she liked best: eating. Right after enjoying a good breakfast, she peacefully closed her eyes on 104 years of existence. I remember her once saying that the day she'd stop eating, it would be a sign of her imminent death. I'm glad she never got to that point!Her death took us all by surprise. I know what you're thinking, she was a 104! But it genuinely surprised us, because she took us all on the ride for all these years and it just became expected for her to live forever. Besides, everyone enjoyed the yearly summer family gatherings on her birthday. And upon leaving her this past sunday, after having spent a pleasant weekend by her side, she half jokingly, half seriously told us (my aunt and I) she expected us to be back on monday to take care of her, as my grandma would be working on President's day.
This is a woman who aged well; she had all her teeth, wore reading glasses, kept her sanity and lucidity, had a great sense of humour, a voracious appetite (which turns out is hereditary, especially when it comes to sweets!), never got sick as in never had diabetes, arthritis etc (until this past month when her body started retaining fluids, mainly in her lungs, which got her out of breath and eventually caused her death), went to school at the age of 90 (it's never too late to learn!!!), knew and loved all her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren (adopted and blood-relatives) dearly. Until recently, she was cooking and cleaning. But mobility became an issue in the past year or so and began to limit her independence.
However, all along the way, she remained greatful, humorous and loving, guided by her life mantra: "give me strength, courage and patience dear Lord", without knowing this simple prayer would keep her alive and well for more than a century. If there is someone who has lived a beautiful, humble life and died of an equally honorable death, it is her...
While I did my share of crying, and realized that her departure has left forever a void in our lives, I can only be happy for her; happy that she died in a warm sunny country, happy that there was no suffering and only enjoyment as she took her last breath. Besides, she herself said (in creole of course) that when she lays in the coffin and we'll be saying farewell, bawling our eyes out, she'll be looking at us out of the corner of her eye, laughing...
Perhaps my only regrets for her would be that she won't get to be buried next to her husband, who lies waters away, and that, as the eldest citizen (of Florida is it? or the US?) she'd receive a birthday letter signed by now ex President Bush, upon her anniversary, ever since she turned a 100, and that she will unfortunately not live to have the privilege to receive it from President Obama on her 105th... oh well!
All I can wish for you lots, is that you age just as well, and that you may be fortunate to die peacefully, of old age, in your home, surrounded by loved ones.
This being said, I'd like to share with you the best elegy I've heard, which is incidentally one of my favorite songs. I'm talking about Simon & Garfunkel's "Frank Lloyd Wright". I did a bit of research and it turned out this song was actually written as a farewell to Art Garfunkel, on Paul Simon's part, upon the death of their collaboration.
A song, that for some reason popped in my head as I was writing this entry, is The Arcade Fire's "Wake Up". And I couldn't help but notice that the beautiful melody sung by Win at 4:42 "With my lightning bolts a-glowin' I can't see where I am going" shares an uncanny resemblance to the gorgeous, plaintive theme of Fauré's Élégie Op. 24 for cello and piano, which is introduced in the first bars and comes back once more at 2:15 min and even more passionately at 4:55 min. But that's what great bands/musicians do, they're able to inspire themselves and/or emulate great compositions, both consciously and unconsciously.
Petite parenthèse on "Wake Up": I was a little disappointed when I looked up the lyrics and found out the very last line is actually " You better look out below!" and not " You better look out for love!", since the latter would have brought a more hopeful ending to the song.
It's funny that once "Funeral" became widely hyped up, I stopped cold listening to it for years (that's just my nature), only to go back to it today (I'm dead serious! no pun intended), and now a wave of nostalgia washes up over me: "rebellious" CEGEP years, joining my first band, meeting and hanging out with Richie, Régine and Win.While The Arcade Fire might be overrated and a tad apocalyptic to some, when it comes down to it, they sound a lot better than what most "indie" bands are releasing these days... To me, 2008 was, pardon my french, a shit year, save perhaps Beach House's magical "Devotion", Land of Talk's solid "Some Are Lakes", those Nigerian and Golden Afrique comps, No Kids' geeky soulful "Come into my house" (which totally trumps Hot Chip's what was it called again?!!) and Half-Handed Cloud's... well everything he released! I might be forgetting other albums but that's beside the point!
Much like Régine, as far as I know, most of my family (to the exeption of the Frenchies on my mother's side), including my now deceased great-nan (from my father's side) are from the ex "Perle des Antilles", Haiti. They eventually emigrated to Montreal during the Duvalier years (only to relocate to the Sunshine State 25 years later).
Speaking of Montreal, if you're around Concordia's campus tomorrow, the 18th, do the right thing (oh how clever!), and make sure to catch Spike Lee's lecture!!!! I know I would if I could!!!
And lastly, speaking of great black people (what?! I never said I was good with paragraph transitions!), I'll just leave you with Jazz's smokiest elegy: Goodbye porkpie hat, Mingus's reference to Lester Young's (below) trademark coiffe.
And till next time (which should be my next entry, really), take good care of yourself, I mean it!P.S.: to download mp3, just click on links. I think you'll be able to figure out which ones are mp3s.
