Farewell George!

This evening we remembered and honoured our dear friend George Smith .   The Celebration of Life was held at the amazing Alexander Graham Bell Museum...he would have laughed himself silly at this!!!   Such a monumental place - and he being a rather larger than life man, it was absolutely the right place for this event.

I headed down there around 5.30 to help Cora-Lee....i took 4 of my easels so she could display some of George's paintings.   The event wasn't starting till 7pm so i was heading out for a bite to eat when Derek was testing the slide show!   I just sat there, in the quiet....only 3-4 of us were there at this point getting things organized.....so many memories of this man, he was such a creative soul. 

I grabbed a very quick salad and glass of wine at a near by spot....and when i returned the place was beginning to fill up.

George was such a well known character around Baddeck...not only for his art work, their Dancing River Sprite events...but also as a very good carpenter.    Like many artists who are trying to make a living there are often many hats to be worn and George did whatever he needed to do to enable himself time to paint!

There were many wonderful and heartfelt tributes by members of the community....interspersed with readings of his biweekly column in the local paper....Get Your Laughing Tackle Around This.   His column usually had some wild and woolly tale of his youth and always at the end of the piece there would be a recipe!   He sure lead very rich and full life....so many adventures....

Afterwards there was some time to have a visit with some friends you don't see too often, other than bumping into them at the Co-op!!

I sorely miss seeing him in town or at some event....you never just said Hi how are you and moved on....there was always time for a tale or an idea....he was a man who poured so much of his energy into his life and the life of those he knew!