| Eulogy for Don Blair |
| First, I must express my appreciation to all the family for letting me say a few words about Don Blair.
I didn�t know him anywhere near as long as many of you here today may have, but I did know Don long enough, and well enough, to count him as a good, true friend.
I want to mention three things about Don: 1) where I saw his generosity, 2) his great sense of family and 3) his friendship. When I first met Sandra and Gwen 12 years ago, it was only a few short weeks later I was introduced to Don and Ellen, and it seems only a few short weeks after that that I was laying on the floor of Don�s garage trying to fix those sorry excuses for vehicles that Sandra owned. This was almost a weekly or even a nightly occurrence for the first while and Don insisted on staying out in the cold with me until the job was done. He wanted to save me time by getting the tools I needed. I know he wanted to keep checking up on me to make sure I was doing things right. Also he just wanted to keep me company. Over the next 10 years, I found that if Don had something I didn�t, he was very willing to lend it, loan it or help in whichever way he could. Family, sense of family � what I heard come out of Don�s mouth was how he loved his wife and children very much. He loved them and needed them. Family is a basic building block upon which our understanding of civilization rests, and Don believed in his family greatly. Don insisted he treated all his children the same � fairly, equitably and I believe he did. His flaw, if he had one, may have been to not recognize how children, with different personalities might respond differently to his challenges. However, I did take from our conversations that he wanted only the best for all of them. A little closer to home for me was how he accepted me into the family. He made me feel at ease and comfortable to be around him. Very early on, he and I took measure of each other and said, �Yeah, this might work�. Of course, how could one not feel part of the family as you listened to his stories over and over and over again, with each telling of adventures in the Air Force, of moped rides loaded down with kids in Goose Bay. Some details would be added the next time. Soon such a complete picture had formed in your mind, you�d say, �I must have been there, I had to have been there�. Thank you for that, Don. What I would like to leave you with is this thought. Many of you know of Don�s enthusiasm for doing crosswords. Thus the tie I�m wearing. You may also be aware of his love of planes and flying. I would return from a trip and he would be asking what equipment did you go on? Uh, I don�t know. What about coming back? Same answer, uh� I soon learned to pay more attention to the ticket so I would be able to tell Don what he wanted to know. For Don, there was never a bad time to stop, look up and search the sky for that plane flying by. Also there was never a bad time to stop, sit down and sip a cool one with a friend. May God rest your soul in eternal peace. Love ya, Don Blair. - Lloyd Dowkes, son-in-law |