I found out from Larisa that my friend Greg Barker passed away during the weekend from an automobile accident. I don’t have many other details yet as my only connection to him was through my friend Phil and I have been unable to reach him at this point.
All I know is that the car slid on some ice sometime during the weekend.
When I got the news that Greg passed away, all I could think about was his music for some reason. Greg was a great pianist and even though I can’t recall any specific tunes he played for me, I remember the feeling of awe whenever he plunked his fingers down on the piano and played something. It was really beautiful. Last time I saw him he was playing oldies tunes in old age homes to entertain the folks there.
The last time I saw Greg was last summer when I was visiting Philipp in Montreal. Philipp, Greg and I scaled up Mont Royal at night and sat and marveled at the city in all its glory and talked about whatever came to our mind.
Greg always enjoyed a good laugh and it was always a good time when I got together with him. I will miss him dearly. He was my friend.
This occurrence has also made me think of driving in bad weather conditions. While I do not know the circumstances of what happened, I can only imagine that it may have happened over the weekend on the Sunday where Southern Ontario was an ice rink. If so, let this occurrence put a thought into everyone’s head on the decision to either take another day to travel home and stay safe, or to take a risk (however slight it may be).
Greg is spreading joy through his music elsewhere now.
***update*** I found out from Phil that Greg and his friend were travelling on HWY 148 last Wednesday and hit some black ice and it was bad luck that had a car coming from the opposite direction.
His funeral is in Montreal this Saturday, but if there are people in Ottawa who wish to go to his memorial, it is next Thursday in town and you can find more information in his obituary which is in the Ottawa Citizen today.