- John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
Joao Jacinto Borges Pimentel
(1934-2006)
Um homem que amou Deus e amou os seus - e que foi vitima de gente mau na sua vida terestra. Agora estaje nos C�us, Joao Jacinto Borges Pimentel - com tia Estrela, a tua mae Clara, o teu primo e afilhado Domingos, a tua prima Lionilde, os tios Manuels, a mae da tua sogra Maria Augusta, a tia Constantina e a tua santa avo - alminhas santas, todas, sem excep�ao; que Deus permeta que voz todos olhares por n�s que ficamos aqui na Terra - at� o fim dos tempos.
A tua mancidao fui exemplar - tu estas com Deus, pai - eu lhe sei muito bem
Quer ser como ti - e nao consigo.
- Luciano Pimentel
(Mancid�o - c'est pas mon fort, des fois...
Ele, sim.)
OBITUARY: On this, the year of our Lord 2006, on the 28th of March,
Joao (Jean/John) Pimentel has passed on. He leaves grieving him his wife, Maria Adelina, his son Luciano, numerous relatives and precious few true friends.
Jean Pimentel n'est plus. Il nous a quitt� le 28 Mars de l'an 2006. Il laisse dans le deuil son �pouse, son fils, un fr�re et une soeur de m�me que de nombreux neveux, ni�ces, cousins - ainsi que de pr�cieux amis qui se f�rent rares, eux aussi...
No ano 2006, faleceu Joao Jacinto Borges Pimentel, que deixou de luto a sua esposa, o seu filho unic�, varios familiares e caros amigos escolhidos com o dedo da mao direita...
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
- Saint Augustine
Genius is eternal patience.
- -- Michelangelo
Suivra ici un extrait des paroles que j'ai prononc� le jour des fun�railles - ce f�t totalement improvis� comme eulogie. Je dirais plut�t - inspir� par une sainte �me... Desol� du manque occasionel de ponctuation en Francais sur ce site - GeoCities ne semble pas aimer le Francais parfois... Ni le Portugais d'ailleurs.
""Je n'ai jamais connu d'homme plus honn�te... int�gre... patient... devou� � sa famille...
que Joao Pimentel... mon p�re.
(...)
Ce monde �tait meilleur - et enrichi - avec sa pr�sence.
Ceux qui enrichissent ce monde nous quitte plus vite.
Ceux qui souillent ce monde durent plus longtemps.
Mon pere n'�tait pas "quelqu'un"... il ne ft pas un politicien... il ne fut pas un homme d'�tat... il n'�tait pas un grand Orateur... ni un magnat quelconque... mais on gagnait � le connaitre.
C'etait un saint homme.
Et le perdre est notre perte � nous tous... et le gain du Paradis, qui a d'ores et dej� un saint de plus.
Que Dieu Te B�nisse, Papa""
Il avait 36 ans quand je suis n�
J'avais 36 ans quand il a �t� d�livr�
Je l'ai vu partir deux fois
Il m'a donn� la vie deux fois
Peut �tre que je suis trop s�v�re envers les autres
Maybe I am being too harsh on the rest of them
Mas a verdade � esta mesmo
Joao Jacinto Pimentel Borges -como ele assinava, ponde a sua santa mae asima do seu pai- � mesmo O MELHOR DE TODOS OS PIMENTELS
Melhor que qualquer um tambem
Melhor de que os SOUSAS
A gazillion times better than "os FANAZES"...
Il a le Ciel Garanti
He is certifiably in Heaven with God -
while the rest of them are all question marks AT BEST...
And in the Grand Scheme of Things, he is greater than the most accomplished one among the living
For he, at least, did not achieve what he did achieve on the back of anyone else
nor by hurting anyone else...
Testimonials
(prickled from all eras really):
"Eu gosto dos meus outros primos tambem; do meu primo Jose, do meu primo Gilberto... mas o Joao � o melhor de eles todos - o mais bom de eles todos. Docil... paciento... fino... que bom marido ele vai ser."
- Lionilde Pimentel, mae da Saozinha
"Joao Pimentel tinha tanta finura e mancidao; e o seu filho e todo igual a ele."
- Ines Rebelo
"Um homem com tanto bom coracao... que nunca fez mal a nimguem mesmo... com mais mancidao de que eu mesma... um santo... que Deus te deia tudo de volta, querido Joao."
- Maria Adelina Caldeira Pimentel,
sua esposa e minha mae
"Tio Joao - nos sempre tivemos tantas saudades"
- Rita Maria Pimentel Miranda
"Ele estava se treminando (...) Ele � o meu irmao - o meu sangue."
- Gilberto Pimentel
"Mon cher cousin - que Dieu te b�nisse!"
- Sao Medina des Productions Sao
"Nao h� ninguem nesta familia que se compara a ele - ninguem de vivo e poucos dos mortes! Joao Jacinto Borges Pimentel era e *�* o melhor dos Pimentels mesmo - sem duvida nemhuma! Ele nunca criticava de ninguem - nunca disse mentira de ninguem - nunca chatiava ninguem! Nunca rebaixou ninguem tambem... So disse a verdade! Na cara mesmo - de chapa! Como eu fasso-lhe tambem; eu, o seu unico filho, Luciano Pimentel. E as verdades que ele disse - eu vou repetir. E vou dizer *mais* por sima! � so esperar e vai ver o que vai acontecer, caras amigas e amigos! Inimigas e inimigos! Para Tudo e para todos - A Luz Vai Ser Feita! Por n�s todos..."
- Luciano Pimentel
"We all prayed for him - what was meant to be happened - I am sorry - he is with God now - your dad is still with you in your head and heart and always will be if you believe"
- Leah Powers
"First I will say, that you have honoured your father in the best possible way I can imagine and I am sure he is feeling very happy. I have followed and felt your emotions and pain and, even if no person can really feel another person's emotions as we are individuals, I believe, that I have been able to feel at least some of your pain today. Your father has been and is a very beautiful person as well as God's spiritual idea and with this closeness you two have had, I understand how much you miss him now. His beauty, the beauty from God, is living on in him now as well as before and before he was born here, as I believe, that this life we have now - no matter how real it seems - is a mere illusion from which we return the day we choose or are called by God for another purpose. By growing spiritually, by trusting only God, the missing of loved ones lessens. Of course I sometimes miss my father and am overwhelmed by it, but Everything is possible for those who believe - not only if you are spiritual at a high level - no - it is possible IF YOU BELIEVE - no conditions attached. And if you open your mind to that these things are not impossible, they will happen the way that God knows is the best for you and the best way for you to grow spiritually. God wants you - and me - and everyone to be happy. And it is possible for those who believe. Do good and you have divine authority to demand harmony - through divine authority. My mother died in 1986 and I also shut down missing her, partly because I was not able to deal with it - the loss was to me a complete nightmare. I wrote a mini-poem about it saying:
The only good thing
about your passing on is,
that now
I will never again
be afraid
of losing you.
My father died in 1993 and it has taken me at least 10 years not to cry for him if not daily then weekly, and still I do it and I miss him too often for sharing thoughts. It is not something I do by dwelling in the sorrow, no, as it all comes by an association and it explodes like a waterfall and then I either deal with what I am missing and the thoughts or try just to move on with my things. I always have carried God with me from childhood. What I am saying here is what I have learned from all these years of holding on to life and God and finally finding the shore - and through hard lessons and confronting many fears, I now have started a more steady spiritual journey. So you have to start loving yourself as God loves you, see yourself as perfect as He sees you, forgive yourself for whatever mistakes you have made, expect good for yourself in spiritual growth and, not the least, expect all your dreams to be fulfilled asking God for guidance in all in your life. You shine as well as your father - only you forgot to take off your dark glasses and look in the mirror!"
- Annette Bruun, artist and author
"Senhor Joao era muito boa pessoa mesmo. Ele e o seu afilhado, Domingos, irmao do meu marido, eram os dois muito boms iguais. As suas alminhas estao num bom lugar, com toda a certesa."
- Lurdes de Photo Galicia
"Goodbye Padrinho"
- Rosa Maria McMaster Conrod
"C'est triste notre fin..."
- Manuel Pimentel, on the day of the funeral in 2006. Something to which I reply to here and now with "Non, Manuel, ce n'est pas la fin - mais le COMMENCEMENT."
I couldn't reply on the day itself because I was standing there, as they lowered the coffin into the ground... Couldn't be as sharp at the time...
Ye of little faith, Manuel...
"Je me rappelle tr�s bien le souvenir de votre p�re m�me si je ne l'ai vu qu'une seule fois. Par suite de sa maladie, il semblait tr�s innocent, et les innocents sont bien re�us par le Christ au ciel. Le Royaume des cieux est � eux. Nous devons �tre comme lui, si nous voulons un jour le rejoindre la-bas. Salutations � votre m�re, et Courage."
- Armand Gargoura
And For Those In The Know
Dos
Pimentels
He was 25 years old.
Native of Rosario, Lagoa, on the island of Sao Miguel - one of nine islands that comprise the Acores in the Atlantic Ocean
He had worked, as his two brothers and lone sister, on the family's holdings - orchard farm, a vineyard and agricultural land - all of which the Pimentels owned and were envied for.
Once he came to Canada, he would work for OTHERS... That, in itself, was a travesty.
He made, for better but mostly for worse, another island his home for what was to be the rest of his life...
The island that was briefly known as "L'Ile Jesus" - but it proved not to be worthy of such a name I suppose and was palindromically renamed "Laval" just about when... I was born, actually.
Me, Luciano... Joao Pimentel's only son
Mon p�re n'aura eu qu'un seul fils - et je fus ainsi l'�lu pour prendre soin de lui - parler pour lui - defendre ses acquis et avoirs - ainsi je suis le candidat tout choisi aussi pour garder son souvenir vivant en cette Terre - le souvenir d'un homme pieu et bon - qui m�ritait des jours bien plus longs en ce monde - ainsi que plus de joie, de bonheur et de chance dans cette vie qui fut �court�e au d�but de 2006 - alors qu'il venait de faire ses 72 ans.
Toute sa vie durant, mon p�re f�t charitable, sans �tre plus heureux ou plus appr�ci� pour autant; il donna sa voiture usag�e -au jeune du quartier qui conduisit ainsi son premier v�hicule, gratis- plut�t que de la vendre...
Il pr�tait de l'argent � tous ceux qui lui en faisaient la demande - son fr�re Jos�, pourtant plus vieux mais fort moins assagi... son beau-fr�re et "compadre"... ses co-locataires, alors qu'il �tait nouveau venu au Quebec et n'avait que 25 ans... Il �tait leur BANQUIER, pardieu! Devrais-je collecter aujourd'hui les pr�ts non-rembours�s, papa? Dis-le moi...
Il supporta financi�rement sa belle-mere, l'oncle de son �pouse, poussa le m�c�n�t jusqu'� supporter m�me sa belle-soeur veuve depuis 1996 et un jeune n� dans un pays sous-developp�, via le Christian Children's Fund of Canada
Et il f�t mon support constant aussi - comme je fus le sien, en d'autres conditions (logistiques entre autres), durant les 13 derni�res annees de sa vie sur Terre.
Je suis heureux, qu'au moins, il n'ait pas souffert excessivement durant ces treize ans. Il avait une attitude de saint - vraiment. Il accepta tout ce que la vie lui amena -absolument tout- et ne se plaignait au grand jamais. Un Saint, je vous le dis.
Thirty odd years ago, he was pacing the halls of that hospital...
As I came into this world.
He had lit a candle to the Holy Virgin.
So that both his wife and child would survive.
I was pacing the halls of that same hospital
In March of 2006... DEMANDING that they keep him alive.
In this cold cruel world
-and despite that fact- when death comes, we do not want to give in.
In our case, especially not in that same hospital
where they have kept a 95 year-old woman alive, on a respirator,
in a neuro-vegetative coma, for MONTHS...
and me, I had to fight with the medical staff
to get my father the same thing for barely a week!
Dr. Bellemarre is a name I will never forget, that is for sure...
Pre-destined name that you have there, dispenser of death.
In a hospital rife with pre-destined names...
They have a Dr. Lacharit�...
a Dr. Labrecque... a Dr. Ferron, a Dr. Moussette and a Dr. Marsolais
Some do a terrible job.
Others are just adequate - for small tasks.
They profess to lead the way in all the major areas of their profession
and, thus, they believe to be meritorious of the new E.R. in the fall of 2007
but when it comes to actually saving lives
they are found to have not enough of a budget all of a sudden
To refurbish an old hospital, they could find millions
to save the earthly life of one precious kind soul they could not find reasons to pursue that goal.
They invoked "l'acharnement th�rapeutique" and even "la profanation de cadavre"...
They invoked the hopelessness of any possible recuperation...
They even invoked the possibility of another, more "salvageable case" coming in
into intensive care...
All to do the opposite - and not save but snuff out that life that was dear TO ME.
Hence, we had to clear the spot.
Because we had no hope.
We were stripped of it early.
By the good hypocrites
who swore Hippocrates' Oath.
God Will Give You The Adequate Payment For This
nurses and quacks
who contributed to the hasty departure of a good man.
And I bless his name
Joao Jacinto Borges Pimentel
O Meu Santo Pai
whom I will see again
on Judgment Day.
The first video to be found at the onset of the bottom half of this Honor Page is an allegorical presentation of what leaving this world is like. The performing artists are collectively known as Sigur Ros. The little blond drummer boy in the video, who is leading the "revolution", reminds me a lot of my dear saintly dad - who was blond when he was very young... The children in the video all go to sleep mid-way through the clip and then their souls continue the pilgrimage they were on - and their souls take off. My father went to sleep on March 22nd, 2006 - an afternoon nap that he would never wake up from. And his spirit soared.
And he is in the Light.
please scroll down (best when viewed with Mozilla Firefox)
Pray for us down here, dad