Donald Patrick Courtois, 1951-2010
I wrote about my brother-in-law a couple weeks ago, saying that he was gravely ill and not expected to live much longer. He hung on longer than most people expected but finally succumbed today. He was a beloved brother to nine siblings (eight survive), uncle/great-uncle to 19 nieces/nephews, eight grand-nieces/nephews, and friend to more people than I could ever count. As ill as he was, he kept his smile and sense of humor until the end. Godspeed, Don.
Edit: Thanks to everyone for their comments. I know that my husband and his siblings appreciate your thoughts.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Sorry for your loss. (His name is like mine — at least the first two)
March 9th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
My dad’s name is Donald. I hate when people die when they are SO young. Thinking of you and your family with love!
March 9th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
That is way too young. I’m so sorry to hear this.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Condolences from the Northern Component ………. A loss in the family is always hard to bear.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Sorry for your loss. Don was one of the most interesting and exciting people I have ever met.
March 10th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Our deepest sympathy to all in the Courtois family. Reg and Paulette
March 11th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
My deepest condolences to all of the Courtois family. Don was one of the oldest, closest, and dearest of my friends. He will be forever loved, remembered, and sorely missed. He was a true original. With love, Holly
March 11th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
I have know and loved Don for 15 years. I will miss his poetic words, his nutty sense of humor, his kindness and his love. I send heartfelt condolences to the family and all of his dear friends.
March 11th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Thanks for all the kind words. I have talked to so many people over the last few weeks who have nothing but the kindest of memories and comments about Don. His clients are shocked. Most had no idea of his ongoing health problems.
-UU
March 12th, 2010 at 10:40 am
I’d been keeping tabs via Facebook on this… mostly by way of Kathy’s postings… while it’s rough to lose a close family member, you have the bonus of having a large and loving family that pulled together and accomplished a tremendous amount very efficiently; in reducing the stress factor that way, I’m sure Don and the family were able to focus on saying their “good-byes” and spend some true “quality moments” together without the worry of “how do we deal with all this?”. As always, our love to all the family members.
Coming from small families, when we lost The Engineer, there wasn’t that same kind of ‘family safety net’ to fall back on… and at a time like that, it would have been nice to have had a lot of siblings around!
May 26th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
[…] Day with me. Actually, the GG and I had breakfast that morning with his older brother Don and the Lord of Linden. It wasn’t a Mother’s Day breakfast. It was just breakfast. But […]