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sudden death of our friend Marcel ...


mark tonin

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the funeral was today, and there were lots of stories and pictures of marcel. his parents are lovely people, and welcomed his freak family as though we were real family.

as iliana reminded all of us, marcel's favourite aphorism was a bit of wisdom from joseph campbell.

"Follow your bliss."

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It was a very emotional funeral service yesterday, filled with many laughs and tears as people close to Marcel shared their thoughts and stories about him.

Harvard Mouse was very happy to be able to contribute to the service by playing acoustic versions of two of Marcel's favourite songs, Ripple and Brokedown Palace. The line "mama mama many worlds I've come since I first left home" was particularly tough for me to sing without losing it.

Marcel's acoustic guitar and songbook were both on display at the funeral service. The songbook contains handwritten versions of many of Marcel's favourite songs. I'd never seen it before, and after the service I flipped through the book and found myself staring at hand-written versions of Ripple and Brokedown Palace, appearing on opposite pages of the book. May Marcel's spirit and memory continue to shine on forever.

I feel better today than I've felt in a number of days, an indication to me that I am on the path to dealing with this loss. I can only imagine how tough and long of a path it will be for his parents, siblings, and his closest friends.

Thanks for the kind words everybody.

Peace, Mark

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thanks for sharing that Mark, none of it has been far from my mind all week... only really knew Marcel as well as Deeps described... a really happy fellow to share a smile and some laughs at shows and festivals (he came up to me like an old friend the last time we bumped into each other amd we frollicked about laughing like kids... a great memory)

a positive I keep thinking about is that I'm really happy he got to see his parents again

peace

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the funeral was exactly as tough and as healing (in the ability to grieve and say goodbye very publicly) as I thought it would be.

Mark...that same line has always choked me up personally as well...each time we practiced/sang that song over these past days, I never made it more than halfway through...the rest becoming a kind of silent/whispered prayer to Marcel himself. I am SO proud of Dave's strong, sure voice (and all the mice harmonies) that carried that song to the rafters!!!!!

I do believe we (the freak family connection) were a gift to Marcel's family. I had some lovely & loving moments with his mom, dad and sister afterwards.

In part of his sister's eulogy (which showed she DID know and understand her brother) she said something like "I think Marcel understood what was important in life/got a lot of things right" I know I'm paraphrasing badly, but again, it seemed to me she was understanding him as being 'different' than the rest of the family, but somehow more 'right' in his priorities. That made me happy to hear it.

I want to thank all who contributed to this thread...It really DOES make a difference; you need to know this. Never fear what to say....just responding to/validating our deep pain, listening to/responding to our own stories about Marcel and sharing your own (thanks Paisely, Mike & Sharon, and others!) helps so much.

I'm dreading when this thread gets 'washed away' as I know it will. But I know that it certainly does not mean he's forgotten.

Again, to all of you...heartfelt thanks for your loving thoughts....I absolutely felt them over these tough days!

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I had a moment there at one point right before the service; a friend of Marcel from BC had brought his guitar and songbook, among other things, from his house there, and I saw among the stickers on it one that I hadn't seen before - "God was my copilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him :) ". That really brought a smile and tear to the face.

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All nice things said. For a guy I only remotely knew and hadn't heard these wonderful storys before, it makes my eyes wet reading all these great postings. But the most saddest story hasn't been told. From all I can tell, Marcel hadn't accepted his ticket to live forever. This is not fiction: the most read book in the world will tell you how everyone has a ticket and they need only receive it. Have you accepted yours? Jamming forever - now doesn't that make your soul sing!

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Thanks, Meggo - well put.

TLLOM, in the spirit of Marcel's passion for sincere dialogue, I'd suggest you take that discussion to another forum (Politics has turned into a good one), where I expect you can find all sorts of engagement. Please understand, though, that neither I nor anyone I can think of on this board would find any hint of disrespect in this thread - as anywhere else, for that matter - acceptable.

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