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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Monday, September 03, 2007
Losing a friend
A terrible tragedy, one almost beyond words, has occurred this Labour Day weekend.
Jim Wright, the much-loved director of the Sauvé Scholars program, died in a tragic accident at his country home in the Laurentians. Meriem (Mimi) Maza, a past Sauvé scholar from Algeria who was visiting the Wrights for the weekend, also died. Jim's wonderful wife Nancy has survived, thank God, but is seriously injured.
Apparently a propane gas tank exploded; Jim died immediately, Mimi hours later. The house is completely destroyed.
This is an unbelievable shock. How could people with so much life left in them be taken from us in such a cruel and terrible manner?
Jim will be remembered fondly by all who knew him. He was a former Westmount city councillor and McGill governor, president of the University Club, and long-time lawyer at Fasken Martineau, having been hired many years ago by John Gomery.
Mimi was a feisty, brilliant woman who believed passionately and courageously in advancing women's rights in the Muslim world.
I almost always stopped in to see Jim when I was in Montreal. He always made time for past scholars. He even kept our mail for us, years after we moved out of Sauvé House. I was fortunate enough to see Jim one last time Thursday evening at a welcome reception he organized for the new crop of Sauvé scholars, who had just arrived from around the world. He invited alumni who were in the Montreal area. He was very excited about this years' group and the diversity and richness of their backgrounds. He was in fine spirits and mentioned that he was going to the country for the weekend.
The second-to-last time I saw him was in early Spring, when I stopped in to say hi during a break in my interviews for an articling position. I told him I was looking for a pair of rubber overshoes so my shoes wouldn't be so slushy and salty-looking when I got to the firms to present myself.
"Actually, I've got a pair right here you can have," he said. "I don't want them anyway, the zipper's broken."
I took them. And the zipper wasn't broken. Those shoe covers will have more special meaning now.
Jim Wright was one of the most fundamentally decent and kind human beings you could ever meet. His love of and pride in Montreal and Quebec and Canada, his dry sense of humour, his kindness, his compassion for those around him and the joy he took in living life are the things about him I will remember most. He was a mentor to many and a friend to all. All my thoughts are with Nancy and his family, as well as Mimi's.
Sauvé scholars at the Wright country home, Fall 2004.
The late Mimi Maza is standing at back left; the late Jim Wright sitting at bottom left.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:31 PM
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