Death of a Man, Birth of a Legend

Transcription :

He’d contracted a hernia, err, some years before, an’ it was a hernia… that he’d got on some trip, probably ‘cos, when you’re that heavy, an’ ya strain a bit, y’know what I mean… Err, surely that must’ve been it, but it was on one of his trips.

Then at some point in ‘90, the hernia got worse. He didn’t pay attention to it for umpteen reasons. It’s not too clear. Err, I get the feeling… listen, he had lotsa problems with his bishop, things weren’t going well politically, he was under a lotta stress. An’ I get the feeling, he was maybe a little, err, depressive – not that he was in a depression, but, err, in a sad state of mind.

When he got the news that there would be no new diocese in Saint-Jérôme… err, that probably did him in. I mean, it must’ve really… it’s like a trap door opening under your feet, onto nothing… It must’ve been pretty much like that for him.

So anyway, that led to his hernia getting worse. He was in Quebec City. He told his doctors after three days that he had… He’d never told them that he had a hernia! So at one point they learned that. “My God, you should have told us earlier!” And he hadn’t told them. So… well, it got worse, they operated… Err, he was ok for a couple hours. Then he got worse again. They gave him a shot, and it was after that shot… Prob’ly he died of septicemia among other things. So he passed away.

The funny thing about his death… y’know what he did? He laughed. He told a joke at the very end of his life. He died laughing! And his laugh was so infectious that it made others laugh! And then right after, he died. So, y’know, he lived – I mean, he died like he lived, right? Smooth, y’know?