Ted Morrison

Edward Alexander Morrison 

August 19, 1955 - March 17, 2018

Today, August 19, 2022, would've been Ted's 67th birthday, but 67 of life years weren't given to him.

His given name was Edward, but he was Ted to everyone who knew him.

In those few days between Christmas 2017 and New Year's Day 2018, Ted was unwell and admitted to the hospital in Hawkesbury, Ontario. During his brief hospital stay, Ted was informed his ailment was an aggressive form of late-stage lung cancer, and too far advanced for treatment. Worse, he was given only 3 to 6 months to live.

Ted called me after he received his bad news, the worst news anyone could be given. Nonetheless he sounded ambivalent and seemed to accept whatever he'd been told. 

Ted was like that. He wasn't a complainer... but he was someone who rarely revealed his feelings, and maybe to a fault. Regardless, Ted sounded upbeat. In hindsight I'm sure he was in denial, but all I could do was listen in silence. I had no words of comfort to offer him... and I wished I did.

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Ted (left) and me. Scene likely dates from early 1956.

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Ted (left) and me during winter 1956-57.

These two images were recorded in Montreal, however, I'm uncertain if the park was in Outremont or Cote des Neiges. We were living on Barclay Avenue at the time, but our father's parents resided in Outremont.

 

I'm unable to recall anything about the day these two scenes were recorded, even after staring at and pondering the old images, but seeing Ted in that one-piece zip-up snowsuit, I do recall another incident.

Ted was wearing that snowsuit when we were in the Milan train station waiting for the afternoon westbound train. At the time, the Milan station was still manned by an agent, and a small, red-hot wood/coal-burning stove was in the center of the waiting room to keep it warm. 

 

Needless to say, Ted and I became restless and started running around. Anyway, Ted stopped to rest and leaned against the hot stove. When Mom screamed at him to get off, Ted started running around, leaving a trail of smoke behind him. He'd burned off the back of his snowsuit.

 

Ted wasn't hurt and the two of us were laughing our heads off because of the smoke trail. From that moment until the train arrived, Mom and Dad were doing everything they could to keep Ted and me from placing our backsides on that hot stove and repeat Ted's stunt.

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Ted without a care in the world back in March 1958

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Ted and me in summer 1958 visiting in Scotstown, Quebec

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Ted (right) and I posed in front of Dad's ancient Chevrolet. This scene was recorded in Autumn 1958 outside our grandparents' home in Milan, Quebec.

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Ted at the back door of the woodshed of my grandparents' home

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Ted (right) and me in 1958. This scene too was recorded in Milan, Quebec, at the former fox ranch. 

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Ted holding a kitten

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Ted (left) and me in summer 1960 

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Ted - likely taken in1962

A Christmas card Ted made

Mom kept Ted's card all these decades, and was among Mom's items given to me a few weeks ago to sort through. 

These many decades later I can only wonder what was in Ted's thoughts when he made the card, because the colours and the scene are so different from those we usually associate with Christmas.

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Christmas dinner 1965. Ted is on the right wearing glasses, Alan next to him and Kathy across the table.

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Ted (right) in summer 1967 at the Sarampus Falls picnic site on Highway 26 in Maine

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Ted's high school yearbook photo - Riverdale 1973
Ted's photo is the only one I've ever seen mis-named in our high school yearbooks... 
because he was mis-named as Tim.

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Ted in summer 1984 in Bainsville, Ontario.

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Ted holding Kimberly during our visit to Bainsville in summer 1984

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Ted & Sylvie during a visit they made to North Hatley, Quebec, in summer 1984
In retrospect, the best years of Ted's life were those years he spent with Sylvie.

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Ted fishing on the Ottawa River in May 1993.
During those truly good years of his life he was living with Sylvie, and residing in Pointe-au-Chene, Quebec.

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Ted visiting Mom and Dad in Pierrefonds in August 1993

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August 19, 1998, saw Ted in Pierrefonds to celebrate his birthday.

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The wood chain Ted carved in only 2 days back in August 2006

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April 02, 2016, was the last occasion all 4 of us were together, which was for Mom's funeral service.
Left to right: Ted, Dan DaSilva, Don, Alan, Kathy

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Ben and Catherine (Winnie's parents) learned that Ted was seriously ill with un-treatable lung cancer, and when they wisited their daughter Jen and family in Ottawa, Ben and Catherine also made time to travel from Ottawa to Hawkesbury to visit Ted.

   

This is the last known image of Ted (left), captured on or near February 22, 2018,

March 18 2018 was a beautiful sunny Saturday, because that morning Kie and I had driven to Utopia, Ontario, to visit David and family. About twenty minutes after arriving, I received a telephone call.

 

Ted's friend Robert was calling to inform me about the evening before, because Ted had been coughing up a lot of blood and his condition serious enough that paramedics had to be called in. Ted had refused to go to the hospital and from what I was hearing, the medics were able to get Ted's situation under control.

 

When Robert checked on Ted earlier that Saturday morning, he'd found Ted on the floor and cold. At some unknown time between Friday night and Saturday morning, Ted had passed away while he was alone.

 

Minutes after receiving that news, the coroner in Cornwall, Ontario, called to inform me that Ted had indeed passed away, but the date and time of his death uncertain. In my long discussion with the coroner, I mentioned that a few weeks earlier, Ted had insisted to me that he wanted to donate is body for medical research. Ted's wishes in this respect were carried out, and I'm grateful to the coroner for making that happen on short notice.

Soon after the coroner's call, the OPP called me, because Ted had died alone at home. As far as the OPP was concerned after their investigation, Ted's death was not deemed suspicious.

Ted was gone and his body was gone, and because he wanted no funeral or memorial, I've never found any sense of closure with his passing.

Truly as God's word says to us, "... our years come to an end like a sigh." (Psalm 90:9)

In loving memory of Ted, the older of my two younger brothers, and with whom I shared many wonderful, crazy, and fool-hardy adventures in life while we grew up together.

The Oddblock Station Agent