Sunday, June 2, 2024
We were so saddened to hear of Garry’s sudden passing. We first got to know him when Lois worked with him on Rhubarb magazine. After that, we lost touch for a time. When Victor told us of Garry’s car accident, we began reaching out to him by email, and then when he was up and around again, we started a routine of regular, though not frequent visits, the first one at the Fort Garry Hotel coffee shop when he was living in the city working on his physio regimen. After he moved back to the Lot 480, we usually picked him up and went to the Lily Stone Café in Rosenort for breakfast or lunch. He was always cheerful and brimming with new ideas and unique viewpoints on current issues. Garry set the “agenda” at these outings and did most of the talking, sharing many, many stories about the people he had met in the seemingly hundreds of jobs and posts he’d filled over the years, and about the political landscapes he had to manoeuvre in those roles, always with a special wit and humour, which we enjoyed, even when the topics were unfamiliar to us.
He also sent us an email at least once a week. They contained either a poem he’d written, a chapter of the memoirs he’d been working on, or a link to an article in the New York Times, or occasionally a message he’d received from someone, that he wanted to share with us. He was greatly lamenting not being able to work, believing that with his active brain and his ideas and his mental energy, he still had a lot to offer. In 2023 those emails became less frequent— there were long gaps, and we learned (from him) that his health had taken a turn for the worse.
The last time we saw Garry was around the end of January 2024. We have been creating a history book about the community of Kleinstadt, where we used to live. He had lent us a copy of his father’s very extensive memoirs, because his father and mother had co-taught at Kleinstadt back in the early 1940s, and we wanted to include that chapter in the book. We made arrangements to stop in at Garry’s around noon one day to return the memoir and have a visit. We brought muffins and bagels from Tim’s in Morris, and he made us tea in his crowded little kitchen. We had a pleasant time sitting around his kitchen table, and he seemed quite himself.
In one of our last email exchanges, we discussed having purpose. Shortly after that, Victor sent us the news. We surely do miss his lively and thought-provoking letters, and are glad to have known him.
Joe and Lois Braun
