Montreal blogger loses his fight against cancer
I’ve known René Lapalme from Une vie en musique for a little more than a year but I really “met him” at the December Yulblog when he interviewed me for his show on Radio Centre-Ville. By a funny coincidence, he published the interview on my birthday.
In late February, he announced that he was taking a break because he was feeling tired all the time. He posted a couple more shows but on his return to blogging on March 31st it was becoming obvious that things were not getting better. His blog is still online so you can follow the rest of the story (I just don’t have the heart to relate the rest of it). Unfortunately it doesn’t end well.
This afternoon, I heard from Martine that Rene passed away last Saturday at the young age of 42. From his symptoms and the rapid progression of the disease, I’d guess that it was pancreatic cancer, one of the least survivable kind.
This is coming at a time when another one of our own is going through his first round of chemotherapy. Hopefully we’ll have enough good vibes to spare.
[update] Radio Centre-Ville 102,3 CINQ-FM will be commerating his many contributions between 6 and 8 tonight. The podcast will subsequently be available at radiocentreville.com.
Such awful news. I had some wonderful conversations about music with René, and hoped to have many more. My heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones.
OMG. that is terrible. I only met him once or twice and he seemed like such a nice guy.
raises the question — what happens to our digital life (or lives) after someone passes away?
I remember that painful day when we all found out Andrea, the young blogger behind Piglet Posts / Space Cadet, had died in a car accident (almost three years to the day, incidentally…). What was strange was her blog remained..and her Friendster profile…sitting there in your friends list like a strange silent avatar…watching. it was not a little unsettling.
I must thank AJ for this distraction, because otherwise, I might be a bit of a mess right now.
If you read X-Men in the 80s, during the Dark Phoenix saga, the Shi’ar had these spheres with a 3-D image of the deceased. When you picked it up, you could feel their essence-the intangible thing that made that person, that person. Perhaps blogs are a version of these spheres.