My neighbour, Madame Pellerin, died today, or maybe yesterday. I learned this today from my neighbour Mme. Goudreau. Madame Pellerin had been living in the apartment to the lower right of me in this triplex, and was there when I moved in, in 1991. More recently I would do little chores for her, like shovelling the steps or putting in storm windows. She lived by herself, though she was taken care of by her two sons, who visited often. Sadly, she took ill before Christmas, and the holiday decorations in her windows ended up never being lit.
Though she was very slow in her older age, and walked with her quad cane, as in the drawing up above, she was independent, and lived life on her own terms up to the end. So, I hope she had a happy life.
I had done a sketch of her years ago, when she used to sit in her outdoor rocking chair during the summer, along with a friend, and watch the passing scene as I did from my balcony up above. I wanted to post that as a memorial, but couldn’t find it in my sketchbooks, or my flickr.com queue. So I did a new drawing this afternoon from memory. However this shows her a little more enfeebled, more like she had been recently. It’s my first drawing dated 2015.