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THE CELTIC CONNECTION • DECEMBER 1996/JANUARY 1997
MONETTE FUNERAL
In the Midst of Sorrow, There was Such Joy
By MAURA McCAY VANCOUVER — While recently visiting the Gatineau Valley in Western Quebec, we heard that three members of one of the area's oldest families in Brennan's Hill, Guy Monette (48), along with his wife Cathy (46) and their youngest son Michael (17), had been killed in a terrible car accident the night before our arrival.
I went to school with the Monette family and knew the five brothers and two sisters. Guy was the oldest and when his father Francois passed away 20 years ago, he stepped forward to help his mother Mona and became the male head of his family. He married Cathy Kealey, the daughter of Christy and Phyllis Kealey,
The Monette family are the owners of the Brennan's Hill Inn, a
popular local hotel, and I could not help think back to Saturday another well-known local fam nights at the Hill, where the live music was a blend of Irish and Hy. Country and Western and the place was bursting with life.
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Guy and Cathy had three boys and he turned over the running of the hotel to his brothers and took up farming on a 600-acre farm in Fieldville. They were a family who loved each other and who were loved enormously by their community, whose outpouring of grief at their untimely death was clearly demonstrated.
The wake was held in the Heritage Community Hall in Low, Quebec, and the hall overflowed with flowers. Over 1,500 people came to offer condolences to the two families and people waited patiently in line, at times, for over two hours.
Mourners were first met by the entire Monette family, including Guy and Cathy's two surviving sons Jeremy and Jamie, who shook hands with everyone who passed through the hall.
Next, people paused in prayer at the three closed coffins, with photographs of bright shining faces on top of each casket. Many young people openly wept as they looked upon the photo of their young friend along with his hockey jersey.
Then, finally, the line reached the Kealey family, who had gathered to support each other and their mother Phyllis. Both families stood for hours on end and continued through their exhaustion to graciously shake hands and console others in their grief.
The funeral the next day was held at a small church at the Fieldville Parish, which only holds about 250 people. Outside, over 700 people stood in the freezing cold and listened to the mass broadcast over loudspeakers.
Surviving son Jeremy bravely paid tribute to his parents, whom he referred to as "Mom and Guy," and his brother "Mikey." Choking back tears, he said there were no regrets. "We didn't need a final goodbye, because we all knew how much we loved each other." Looking out over all the familiar faces, Jeremy said that it brought back many fond memories, "Just like it always was," he said, "in a bad situation, everything couldn't be better."
He said that his father loved the Gatineau Hills, its people, his
horses and the local sports arena he helped establish and build. "Guy never lived one unhappy day in his life, which makes (his death) easier (to accept)."
Guy was also an avid horse rider and formed a club called The Molly Rod Raiders. They became renown for staging mock holdups of the Hull to Wakefield steam train for fundraising purposes.
Cathy worked at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa and was also deeply involved in charity work. She could always be seen at events helping out with cooking and serving.
After the mass, Guy's beloved team of horses waited patiently outside the church in the crisp and snappy November air to carry him to his final resting place.
Later, the Brennan's Hill Inn was opened up and everyone was invited to stop by for refreshments. People sent food and offers of assistance and there were tables-upon-tables laden with food. While the bar remained closed, tea and coffee were served to the throngs of people.
There were stories shared about the family, memories of the Gatineau and greeting from long lost friends and relations. Even in the midst of such sorrow, there was such joy.
•
Special thanks to The News, from Low down to Hull and Back for information on this story.
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Celtic Symbols Accompany the Light of Solstice
By CYNTHIA WALLENTINE
As the sun travels to the southernmost point of its voyage, we enter the season of the Winter Solstice. In this midnight time of year, we find ourselves in a still darkness, awaiting the return of light to our lives and the landscape.
Symbols and mythology are the clothing of divinity. While we may not be able to see a god or goddess in mortal terms, they are immediately and personally available to us through the symbols which come to us from the ages.
In this season, icons such as St. Nicholas and the Christmas tree represent much more than the tinsel and commercialism with which they have become associated.
The Old Ways inform us that the goddess gives birth to a sun-child at the Winter Solstice on or about December 21.
This masculine solar god becomes the consort of the goddess and together they return warmth and fecundity to the barren and cold world before he fades away to die at Samhain.
This essential male force is known to friends as Cernunnos, Pan, Dagda, the Old One and Nick. His horned, half human,
half animal appearance, once a symbol of the integration of man and nature, became a leering, twisted demon in the minds of Christians.
As Christmas subsumed the Pagan solstice festival, so Nick became our jolly, gift giving elf, "Saint Nicholas. Despite these theological turns, the god is still available to us in the rarely seen "Greenman" or spirit of the forest.
The Greenman is a representation of these old nature gods. Often carved in old churches and cathedrals, the Greenman is identified by a male face peering out of dense leaves or branches.
The earliest Greenmen are depicted with horns and oftentimes the leaves appear to be twining out of the mouth of the entity.
Aptly named, the magic and vegetative colour of green reinforces the spirit's association with the Otherworld and his beloved goddess.
Although reduced to peeking out from trees and perturbing unwitting passersby, the existence of the Greenman side by side with Christian iconography is evidence of the lasting power of this potent, organic god.
The foliage of the great long-
lived tree of the Celts, the oak, is that which most often shelters the Greenman.
The Druids revered the oak tree and the mistletoe which they cut from the oak for their Winter Solstice festival of Alban-Arthan; it still figures prominently in contemporary Christmas tradition. Even the name "Druid" derives from the old English word "Derwydd" or "oak seer."
The oak is the tree of the Dagda, King of the Tuatha de Danaan and from its branches the solstice duel of the Robin and the Wren is played out.
Frequently depicted as the World Tree or Tree of Life, its branches support the sun, moon and stars and at the top; where our Christmas angels sit today, perched the goddess herself.
"As above, so below," with its spreading branches above and deep reaching roots below, the oak tree still mirrors the magic of our ancestors.
Deep in the forest, somewhere off a time-worn path, there is a spirit in the woods.
From the silent forest he appears, light in dark, to guide us to the illuminated point where our journey begins again, and the great wheel turns once more.