Islanders….
Richard’s funeral last night was at a Catholic chapel, way out on Weston Road at Lawrence, nearly the 400 and 401… because of the O”Brien family being located nearby. Patti had great pictures of Richard posted all along the hallway into the main room, a lot of them surprisingly thin pictures of Richard, which got a lot of comment. She also had a table with the Ferry Dock proposal on it for all to see, and a pile of BamBoo Cookbooks for anyone to have. The place was packed with the original BamBoo gang….now older, elegant hipsters…it was a very warm family reunion. Graham and Mitch were there from the Island. There were not enough seats in the chapel for the actual service, so the hallways were full as well. The priest, a simple, youthful looking confused man, waited for the music to start. Unfortunately it was ” He Ain’t My Brother”…we all thought it was a Richard joke. The priest looking somewhat startled the whole time, began, ” Well, by the amount of people that have turned out tonight, I would guess that this was a good man, one who has done less sinning in life, one who had made important decisions about living a good life.” Well, we couldn’t hold it in any longer. There was a huge guffaw, which flustered the poor man into rhapsodies of meeting other famous people…he had quickly surmised this one was somehow ‘famous’. It reminded him of..” the life of Elizabeth the First and also Gregory Hines.” (??!!?) And so he carried on, with more patches of his non sequitur remembrances mixed with the congregation following those Catholic prayers. It was pretty much a surreal spectacle.
Luckily Patti took over, and said the right stuff, with great humour, about Richard, where they had met, which was at the CBC, and how they had started the BamBoo, and a few other stories. Then she introduced other family members to speak, and there were two nieces who said, tearfully, the most amazing things about Uncle Richard, how good he was to take them to galleries, etc, even in his wheelchair. Very touching stories. A few friends had more stories. What was interesting was, they all said Richard was a curmudgeon, or slightly insulting, or cheap, but that he had also allowed them to be their very best at whatever they did: music, cooking, etc. We all were nodding in agreement. I had a turn and said similar things, but mostly how very thankful I was, in my life, to have had the chance to do so much artwork for such a knowledgeable guy and his inspiring projects, including that 23 year gig, the BamBoo. We all had been mentioning that there were weird co-incidences happening in the last few days, (for example that Richard died on Eric Gamble’s birthday) so I thought I would mention that it was rather amusing that the Ferry Dock project was titled “Terminal Art”.
After the speeches, everyone wanted Mary Margaret to sing something, but she was too shy to go up to the podium, so finally she sang, in her magical, unique voice-breaking way, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from her seat. If we weren’t crying by then, that definitely turned on the waterworks.
Patti invited all to continue on at an Irish pub on the Danforth, Dora Keogh, which served an utterly divine Irish Stew for us all, and we partied until midnight. The weather was foggy and warm, so the celebration, including spontaneous duets, were inside and outside the pub. It was one of the best parties ever, with even more stories about Richard, and all of us saluting him for the best, most absurd, FUNeral ever.
And we all knew Richard was absolutely there, hovering over the whole thing, laughing with the gods.
-B. Klunder
(Ed. – Candace, who spoke at Richard’s funeral, is not his niece.)
