My dad, Frank, passed away last week.
Restaurateur, raconteur, father & husband.
He was 89 years old and had suffered from dementia the past five years.
It's a time of relief, as well as, sorrow. Dementia is a terrible disease.
Difficult seeing an old warrior suffer so, and especially hard on my mother.
Dad gave us a great deal:
Humor, drive, love of learning, love of family, faith, honesty, compassion for those in trouble, tenacity, courage and a sense of justice.
He was the model for Nick Papas in Andy & Me and The Remedy.
Dad's restaurant, the Imperial Grill, a celebrated joint on Queen Street East in Toronto, was where I began to learn the fundamentals of management.
Here are a few lines I wrote a few years ago:
Bless the gods that made him ornery
Bless his leathery heart
Bless the healing years of laughter & forgetting.
Sleep well, old fighter.
Pascal
