McGill announced the early death of Professor Jarrett Rudy, at the age of 50, after complications of heart disease and bypass surgery. It was a nice obituary for a tragic end, and I wonder where he was at the time, as restrictions in hospital were very stiff in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. I hope he had made it home, and that he was not alone, but I am quite sure that he and his family were impacted by the virus, as so many are. Even if you are able to die at home surrounded by family, the funeral arrangements are so limited that many are only present virtually, or not at all. It's a difficult time for all, but I feel particularly sad about those whose loved ones pass, and they are restricted in gathering.
To be clear, this is essential. It can be no other way. But it another cost of the pandemic that sometimes farther reaching than the virus itself. We need everyone to do their part, so if we have to ask it of the grieving, we ask it of everyone.
This tenured assistant professor was a writer, and was working on two things I found very interesting. One was a novel on time-telling in Quebec (I wonder if
McGill's Roddick gates restoration saga featured in it, and if it will be posthumously published), and the other was his role as a "co-convener" of a group of Quebec scholars called the
Montreal History Group, "nurturing intellectual exchange and warm merriment". I will have to take a walk to Room 328, Ferrier Building, 840 Dr. Penfield Avenue once the social restrictions allow. Maybe next year the Jeudis d'Histoire and Muffins and Methodology workgroup will be up and running again, and receiving guests.
It is a beautiful homage to a life cut too short. You know that you have written a wonderful piece when a stranger wishes that they would have met the man.
