To see Ratch's obituary, please go to the "His LIfe" section of this site. To add stories or your memories of Ratch, go to the "Stories" section.
+++Thank you for your love and friendship.+++
Tributes
Leave a tributeIt would be so good to have a craft beer together and a long palaver.
See you soon.
Jon
It won't be long now!
Cheerio,
Jon
Everything would have been very, very different.
I still follow your policy of introducing interesting people to each other... God Bless!
*The differences that divide us […] pale in comparison with the fact that we are all woven out of time, that we are born and we die, mayflies who live but a day. The inconceivable “now” escapes backward or inclines forward, it is already a memory or an aspiration. Speech, in which we communicate, is modulated time, just like music. And do not painting and architecture translate rhythm into space?
I am filled with the memory of people who lived and died; I write about them, conscious all the while that in a moment, I, too, will be gone. Together we are like a cloud or a nebula among the human constellations of the twentieth century […] our kinship rests on our having lived at the same time…*
—Czeslaw Milosz, Time
Sue from Davenport House Office Services 1979
--RA in tribute and love.
Sheldon
There's you standing on the swing bridge
I'm the captain on the ship below
But at six o'clock I'll get a taxi on the dock
And be an actor in a T.V. show
Well the crew don't know
And you don't know
And I don't think you should
You'd be scared to be standing there
And the crew'd jump ship for good.
Moonlightin' that's the thing for me
Moonlightin' don't allow no sleep
Well there's no business like show business
And sailin' on the roving sea.
Maybe I'm partly crazy
Maybe I'm partly cat
I figure if one life is good
More lives must be better than that
I'm the captain of a ship
I can write a script
I'm an actor when the work comes
And any actor in Canada
Ought to have more jobs than one.
Moonlightin' that's the thing for me
Moonlightin' don't allow no sleep
Well there's no business like show business
And sailin' on the roving sea.
Sometimes I wonder what's comin'
I wonder what's down the line
Maybe I'll be rich and famous
But it likely wouldn't change my mind
I do love to drive those freighters
And I do love those bright lights
Hope the next show ain't no turkey
And I stay off the rocks tonight
Moonlightin' that's the thing for me
Moonlightin' don't allow no sleep
Well there's no business like show business
And sailin' on the roving sea.
Ratch was certainly in his element.
Still think of you!
Leave a Tribute
Toronto, Winter / Spring 1967
Cleaning out (digitizing) old pictures I came across this picture.
I was a new immigrant to Canada, barely spoke english. Somehow I hooked up with a group of people in Toronto. One of them was Ratch. This guys took it on to teach me proper english and good pronounciation.
After finding this picture I googled for Ratch and to my dismay I found this site.
RIP old friend.
Werner
Aboard the Seguin
Ratch was the first captain of the restored Muskoka steamship.
On our wedding anniversary, we decided on a cruise under his command.
On boarding the ship Ratch warmly greeted us and swept us up to the wheelhouse where he had placed two chairs for a commanding view, and then produced a wondrous boquet of gladiolas for us. What a gift! What a sweet heart. Bless you Ratch.
Your old buddies Jean and Bruce
One heart. One love.