Loss

It is with deep love and sadness that we announce the passing of Jean-Pierre, age 85, of Ottawa, who passed away peacefully at the Montfort Long-Term Care Home on October 20, 2025.

Jean-Pierre was the beloved husband of Jacqueline, loving father of Paul and the late Joanne, cherished father-in-law of Keitha, and proud grandpapa to Samuel.

A dedicated educator, Jean-Pierre spent many years teaching in the Automotive Technician Program at Algonquin College, where he inspired countless students with his knowledge, patience, and humor. Outside the classroom, he found joy in camping, southern beaches, and his lifelong involvement with the Knights of Columbus.

Jean-Pierre will be remembered for his quick wit, gentle heart, and ever-present sense of humor. He always had a joke ready to make someone smile. He was a loving husband, father, and grandfather whose warmth and laughter filled every room he entered.

Time really does go by quickly. We lost my father-in-law on October 20th. Luckily, my husband had been up the week before to spend time with his parents. So, he had a good last visit. 

The memorial service was lovely. It was good to see and talk to so many people there to remember Jean-Pierre.

We stayed in Canada for a few days after the funeral to be with my mother-in-law. She wanted to play Skipbo together after the memorial service. It was nice to laugh together.

We went downtown for a short errand and had to get a BeaverTail.

We stopped by the Rideau Falls for a quick look. 

We went on a hike that we took with Jean-Pierre every Christmas to feed the birds. It looked very different without the snow. 

My father-in-law always called to the chickadees. It was odd not hearing him call out. "Chick-a-dee-dee-dee" on our walk. 

For the first time ever, we saw two beaver swimming in the water. They were dragging sticks around to add to their lodges.

After hiking to feed the birds, we always went to Tim Hortons for hot chocolate and a treat. 

Our visit ended too soon and we had to head back to the airport to return home.

Hug your family and friends, visit often, keep in touch. You don't know when the last time you see them will be the last time.

Family Skydiving

My husband gave me a gift certificate to go skydiving for my birthday. I decided to make it a fun family adventure with Boogs and my husband.

It was about an hour drive to San Marcos to go to Skydive Spaceland. My husband went skydiving once about 30 years ago. I went for my first skydive in 2013 and once more in 2014.  Boogs is now old enough to jump so we all went together.

When I last went, it was owned by someone else. The facility is still a well-run, friendly, professional place to skydive. It is now a skydiving training center owned by the Boyd family and is one of their 5 locations. There was definitely a bit of a different vibe. It was a lot more about learning how to skydive than just being along for the ride. For our tandem skydive they discussed the process more throughly, had you wear an altimeter, let you pull the chute, let you steer, and let you land (if you wanted to). 

While we were suiting up, Boogs said he was not nervous. My husband said he was nervous. I was surprisingly calm but sweating profusely. Boogs jumped with Leo, my husband jumped with Vic, and I jumped with James. Vic said he had close to 30,000 skydives, James said he was right at 10,000, and Boogs did not ask Leo how many he had. Vic offered to take pics before hand for us and told us to pose in a few goofy ways.

Point where you are going.

Point this way.

Who is the most nervous? We all pointed to me.

Ready to go!

They saw us coming and knew we were suckers. We said we were not interested in purchasing photos or a video. A new videographer, Oscar, just happened to be practicing his skills and asked Samuel if he would let him follow his skydive journey. Samuel said yes and you know we absolutely caved and bought the video package after skydiving. I am so glad we did because the pictures and video are awesome.

Always the ham.

Ready to go.

The plane took us up to 14,000 feet for our jump. Boogs went first.

I was nervous for him. It was hard watching my baby boy jump out of that plane.

My husband landed himself standing up.

I gave the controls over to James and he had us come in for a sit down landing.

Here comes Boogs. He was first out of the plane and last to land.

Boogs helped land his parachute in a sit down landing.

We survived! What a great adventure and experience! After our skydive, we went in and purchased our next skydives at a discounted rate. 

Because it is a training school, today's skydive was logged in our brand new skydive logs. For the mere cost of $4200 and 25 jumps, you can get certified to solo skydive. That is not on my bucket list. I think I am fine being a passenger on a tandem jump. Boogs and my husband seem a little more interested in it. I think I will stick with scuba diving for adventure.

Boogs was great today. I love his adventurous spirit. Here is his video: