Jack Richard Orr

Well this is awkward, I appear to have passed away. Everyone told me it would happen one day, but that’s not something I was particularly keen to hear, much less experience! I mean, I obviously knew it was coming, but I always thought it would be going mock chicken with my hair on fire, certainly not like this. Well, considering everything that has gone my way all my life, I suppose I will just have to suck this one up. Speaking of my life, on September 20th, 1942 in Halifax NS, my parents and my older sister celebrated my birth and I was named Jack Richard Orr, son of Walter and Barbara Orr. It seems incredible that this momentous event occurred in the first half of the last century, but David assures me there are official records that can corroborate the details. Just a few years later, when another baby girl was born to my parents, I became a middle child…in case that might explain anything for you! So many things in my life seemed of little importance and insignificant as they occurred, but those memories became my most valuable possessions, believe you me. I remember my Mom, making the best cheddar cookies. I remember my Dad, playing scratch golf with nothing but a 5 iron (“yes David…a 5 iron…write that down”) I remember Kathy, standing in the Officer’s mess in Germany, wearing outfits to make a dancer blush, and thanking my lucky stars. I remember her love of that card game…penuckle was it? I remember her fierce advocacy for our child…Lord help you if you had gotten in her way! I remember my son David getting into RMC and joining the Army (sigh). I remember the pride, and fear, I felt when he deployed to whatever garden spots the Service called for. I remember him making it all the way to Colonel, before he, and his incredible wife and family gave up their paths to come out here and help me do things like this! I remember my daughter Samantha, being born. The terror and sense of helplessness I felt at having to put all my faith into others to help her. I remember my pride in her, how tough she is, how much she’s accomplished. I remember almost bursting with that pride at her wedding to her incredible husband. I remember my grandchildren, Emilie, Noah, Addison and Payton. I remember holding them as babies, and my pride and sense of awe in watching them become the most incredible little humans. I remember my sisters, Marjorie Ann and Barbie, and I miss them very much. I remember my in-laws, Kathy’s siblings, and of course, the out-laws…the merry band of men that married into the Chaland family! And I remember my chosen family too. My life in the Airforce meant years away from blood. Friends made in the Service, all across the world, become family. To all those of you reading this, and who are here for my family, I remember and love all of you too! Sadly, I’m not sure that I will remember for much longer, and as such, it is time for me to go. I will leave you with this…please don’t cry for me because I’m gone, instead be happy that I was here. (Or maybe you can cry a bit…I have passed away after all) Today I am happy, at peace, and travelling at mock chicken. Probably naked! Love you forever, Cheers, Jack