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At Gerry White’s retirement party at the end of September, he was faint of voice, his frame appeared thinner and his face gaunt from advancing cancer.
It crossed more than one mind that this could be not just, “Goodbye pal, see you soon,” but farewell.
And so it was. White, 70, an Ottawa lawyer best-known for advocating for alcoholics, died Saturday evening.
Friends say he was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung, weakened by the cancer that had also spread to his bones.
His death came only hours after a profile of the colourful advocate appeared in the pages of the Citizen.
Related
Shock greeted the swiftness of his passing, as the lawyer had been seen busily working in the courthouse only two weeks ago.
White, one of nine children who grew up in a clapboard house in Chelsea, had an improbable ascent to the bar.
He told the Citizen he never really graduated from high school, bolting from St. Pius X in 1959, when it was a preparatory Catholic seminary with boarders.
He later attended St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, N.S., but did not graduate, eventually earning a degree from Carleton University.
His 20s were shadowed with heavy drinking. He told the Citizen last week that, at the end of a seven-day bender, out of money and luck in a Hull tavern, he borrowed a dime from the waiter and called his older sister, who had largely raised him.
The call led him to sustained involvement with Alcoholics Anonymous, where, at age 32, he found sobriety and a 12-step guide to living. He kept attending regular support meetings at the same place for the next 38 years.
Once sober, he became involved in a recovery home, Billy Buffett’s House of Welcome, named for a famous Ottawa street tramp, which he later managed for seven years.
It was the treatment of alcoholics at the hands of courts that led him to the law. In one case, he said a client, a troubled drunk who had gone straight for six months, was given no recognition of his rehab work during sentencing on a robbery charge.
“I said some nasty things to the defence lawyer,” he recalled. And he embarked on becoming one, enrolling at the University of Ottawa.
He was called to the bar in 1995, at age 50.
Nor was his personal life typical. He is survived by two daughters and was married to his first wife, Nancy, twice.
He joked that second divorce cost him even more than the first, even though the lawyer only had to change a couple of dates.
While he was weakened by chemo and radiation, Nancy arrived to care for him, bringing her ex-husband to the home she shared with their daughter, Stacie.
It is where he spent his final days. It was a remarkable closing of the circle: Gerry and Nancy had seen little of each other for 30 years.
White built a reputation in court for having judges understand that treating the addiction was more important than punishing the resultant criminality.
And he continually emphasized that rehabilitation efforts that resulted in prolonged sobriety should be recognized just like “dead time” in jail.
“All I want my clients to do is clean up,” he once told a Citizen reporter. “To me, that’s the only way you can deter them from committing crimes.”
A lifelong smoker who never really had a law office, he said he was asked by the oncologist whether he ever tried to quit.
“Yes,” he answered, “about a week before coming to see you.”
White was an avid golfer and sports enthusiast once actively involved in horse racing.
He seemed serene in his final days. He talked about the curious path his life had taken: without being an alcoholic first, he probably never becomes a lawyer, never spends 20 years helping the marginal and addicted.
“Find the joy in the journey,” he said.
We hope there was joy in yours, Gerry. Lord knows you spread plenty along the way.
Funeral arrangements were still being made on Sunday morning.
查看原文...
It crossed more than one mind that this could be not just, “Goodbye pal, see you soon,” but farewell.
And so it was. White, 70, an Ottawa lawyer best-known for advocating for alcoholics, died Saturday evening.
Friends say he was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung, weakened by the cancer that had also spread to his bones.
His death came only hours after a profile of the colourful advocate appeared in the pages of the Citizen.
Related
Shock greeted the swiftness of his passing, as the lawyer had been seen busily working in the courthouse only two weeks ago.
White, one of nine children who grew up in a clapboard house in Chelsea, had an improbable ascent to the bar.
He told the Citizen he never really graduated from high school, bolting from St. Pius X in 1959, when it was a preparatory Catholic seminary with boarders.
He later attended St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, N.S., but did not graduate, eventually earning a degree from Carleton University.
His 20s were shadowed with heavy drinking. He told the Citizen last week that, at the end of a seven-day bender, out of money and luck in a Hull tavern, he borrowed a dime from the waiter and called his older sister, who had largely raised him.
The call led him to sustained involvement with Alcoholics Anonymous, where, at age 32, he found sobriety and a 12-step guide to living. He kept attending regular support meetings at the same place for the next 38 years.
Once sober, he became involved in a recovery home, Billy Buffett’s House of Welcome, named for a famous Ottawa street tramp, which he later managed for seven years.
It was the treatment of alcoholics at the hands of courts that led him to the law. In one case, he said a client, a troubled drunk who had gone straight for six months, was given no recognition of his rehab work during sentencing on a robbery charge.
“I said some nasty things to the defence lawyer,” he recalled. And he embarked on becoming one, enrolling at the University of Ottawa.
He was called to the bar in 1995, at age 50.
Nor was his personal life typical. He is survived by two daughters and was married to his first wife, Nancy, twice.
He joked that second divorce cost him even more than the first, even though the lawyer only had to change a couple of dates.
While he was weakened by chemo and radiation, Nancy arrived to care for him, bringing her ex-husband to the home she shared with their daughter, Stacie.
It is where he spent his final days. It was a remarkable closing of the circle: Gerry and Nancy had seen little of each other for 30 years.
White built a reputation in court for having judges understand that treating the addiction was more important than punishing the resultant criminality.
And he continually emphasized that rehabilitation efforts that resulted in prolonged sobriety should be recognized just like “dead time” in jail.
“All I want my clients to do is clean up,” he once told a Citizen reporter. “To me, that’s the only way you can deter them from committing crimes.”
A lifelong smoker who never really had a law office, he said he was asked by the oncologist whether he ever tried to quit.
“Yes,” he answered, “about a week before coming to see you.”
White was an avid golfer and sports enthusiast once actively involved in horse racing.
He seemed serene in his final days. He talked about the curious path his life had taken: without being an alcoholic first, he probably never becomes a lawyer, never spends 20 years helping the marginal and addicted.
“Find the joy in the journey,” he said.
We hope there was joy in yours, Gerry. Lord knows you spread plenty along the way.
Funeral arrangements were still being made on Sunday morning.
查看原文...
