Hand-drawn comic titled 'Carol’s Funeral in Parham'. Six panels arranged in a 2×3 grid. Top left: Large title 'Carol’s Funeral in Parham' with a pine tree drawing. 'Carol’s' is in red and black, 'Parham' is in orange block letters. Top right: 'I have been friends with Stephen for 40 years. We met in Peterborough in 1985, and we’ve stayed friends, despite time and distance.' Middle left: 'Early on, I met the other Southalls:' with a diagram showing Carol + George with arrows pointing to David, Dianne, Stephen, John, Kenny. Note: 'Over the years there were more: partners, children, grand-children.' Also: '* Elizabeth' and 'The Bird *'. Middle right: 'I went to supper with the Southalls, swam at their lake, took off-books communion from (Rev.) George, played cards, met dogs (and more dogs). Had fun.' Bottom left: 'In 2008, George died. I flew up for the funeral, in the basement—church Zion United, in Kingston. It felt right to be there. Joyful, despite it all.' Bottom right: Banner 'THE NEXT YEAR'. 'Stephen moved in with his mother Carol, her Parkinsons meaning she needed care, care that Stephen could provide. He did—for 16 years.' Page number 67 in lower right.Hand-drawn comic page with six panels titled 'Carol Died Last Week'. Top left panel: 'Carol died last week, in hospice, a few blocks from her house, at age 91, surrounded by many (many) Southalls who loved her.' Top right panel: 'I knew I need to go to her funeral—just knew it in my heart.' Four red heart illustrations. 'So on Sunday night I flew from Charlottetown to Montréal.' Middle left panel: 'Enterprise assigned me a sleek Hyundai Santa Cruz as my “economy” car.' Drawing of a brown Santa Cruz with labels: 'covered bed', 'power gate', 'crew cab', 'big display'. 'It felt like the future.' Middle right panel: 'I drove from Montréal to Perth on Sunday, by way Carleton Place.' A simple map shows a route from Montréal through Carleton Place to Perth to Parham. 'Of Carleton Place, where my great-grandfather Edgar Caswell was born in 1872. We communed.' Bottom left panel: 'I stayed at the Colonial House Motor Inn ($109). Clean. Spartan. On Monday morning I had breakfast (a bagel & lox) at nearby North Folk Café (very good).' Bottom right panel: 'On the way out of town, I bought an apple-blackberry pie at the Perth Pie Co., hot from the oven.' Drawing of a slice of pie. '(Pie never hurts.)' Page number 69 in lower right.Top-left panel: Hand-drawn text reads: "The next stop was The Log House, built originally by George and Carol and now owned by Kenny. I'd spent many happy hours there, years and years ago. I (didn't) learn to windsurf there. We all went for a swim. (A very Southall-y thing to do after a funeral)" Top-right panel: Hand-drawn text reads: "More conversations with more Southalls. Landlord. Researcher on healthcare systems. Speech-language pathologist. Teacher - turned teacher. Cinematographer. Builder. (You could recreate civilization just with Southalls.)" Bottom-left panel: Hand-drawn text with a simple map sketch showing locations connected by lines reads: "On the way down to Stephen's in Kingston we drove through many of the town's and villages of Catherine's life. Her Aunt Ioma's cottage in Godfrey, her grandmother's apartment in Verona, the Miller farm in Harrowsmith. This was my first time back to her home places since she died 5 years ago, and in that way there was an extra layer of reckoning." The map shows: Pacham, Cole Lake, Godfrey, Verona, Harrowsmith, and Kingston marked with dots and connected by lines. Bottom-right panel: Hand-drawn text with a simple sketch of a plate of food reads: "IN KINGSTON we landed at (Stephen's friend, now our friend) Shannon's house. We shared a meal:" The sketch shows a plate containing Macedonian sausages and potato pancakes. Text continues: "And for dessert, the apple-blackberry pie, with coconut ice cream. We finished with a rousing game of Triominos." Bottom text: "After supper, Stephen and I went to his house, a house still with so much evidence of Carol, her life, her illness. It was hard."The fourth page of a comic titled "Carol's Funeral in Parham"Hand-drawn comic page with four panels. Top left: Text reads 'TUESDAY Shannon, her dog Teddy, Stephen and I had breakfast at The Elm. Espresso and a BLT. BOTH VERY GOOD.' Simple sketches show a pretzel bun with bacon and lettuce, and a coffee cup. Top right: Text reads 'We went shopping for (Kingston-made) relief printing ink at ArtNoise, and came away with' followed by sketches of a square piece of lino (30cm x 30cm), a brayer, and small tubes of ink. Bottom left: Text reads 'In all the hullabaloo at the hospice and after, Stephen misplaced his phone (I know). So we dropped by the hospice to check. What a place! Bright, open, airy — both architecture and people.' Bottom right: Text reads 'FOR LUNCH, Mekong, excellent Vietnamese food, punctuated by a need to feed parking meters.' Sketch shows a parking meter with text noting 'curiously placed on/off button under the screen' and 'Stephen & Shannon had coins!' Final section at bottom: Text reads 'And then, with hugs, I was off, to Montreal on the 401, for a flight the next day. It was hard to leave — I wish I could have stayed back to help Stephen with what's ahead. But I also know that the important work to come is inside work. For my last night away I stayed at the monastery in Oka, since re-imagined as an auberge. A simple room. A single bed. Birds singing. Quiet. Only one other guest. A good place to pause.' Small sketch shows a simple round logo or symbol.Hand-drawn comic page with a quote at the top in quotation marks: 'I hope death is like being carried to your bedroom when you were a child and fell asleep on the couch during a family party. I hope you can hear the laughter from the next room.' Below the quote is a simple sketch of what appears to be a memorial card or booklet with text reading 'In loving memory Carol Southall' with dates '1930-2018' and a simple cross or religious symbol in the center. An arrow points from the quote to the memorial card."
Peter Rukavina

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Submitted by Susan on

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You have such a wonderful way of documenting your life and your connections to people past and present. This was a pleasure to read.

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About This Blog

Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

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