Volume 32 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: March 15, 2018
The Celebration of his life was really amazing — over 600 people ame and it was really something to realize how many lives he’d touched over his 83 years. The Doukhobors ‘sang him home’ the next day in a very moving funeral service. I was very touched that the local Catholic church also had a special mass for him conducted by a retired priest who’d gone to the seminary (St. Peters) with him. I think the church in Kelowna also had a service to which many former students came. We’ll miss him a lot.
The Celebration of his life was really amazing — over 600 people ame and it was really something to realize how many lives he’d touched over his 83 years. The Doukhobors ‘sang him home’ the next day in a very moving funeral service. I was very touched that the local Catholic church also had a special mass for him conducted by a retired priest who’d gone to the seminary (St. Peters) with him. I think the church in Kelowna also had a service to which many former students came. We’ll miss him a lot.
Bud believed in many values, the greatest of which was love: the deepest kind of love that listens to the heart and connects people.
He had great love for his family: for his father who worked for the CPR, for his mother who worked as a nurse and for his brother and sister and their families. He loved learning in Fernie and Rossland schools, in Notre Dame in Nelson and other universities in Nova Scotia and Seattle.
The priesthood offered him the loving path of Jesus and of being present to others. Here he laughed and loved, creating a safe place for students and staff of Immaculata High as their school principal.
Later, he moved to Castlegar to care for his widowed mother, advocated for a community TV channel, and eventually, decided to stop functioning as a priest. He met and fell in love with Ann, her daughters, their family and, in time, his precious grandchildren.
His love for the people of Latin America took him to Nicaragua, Guatemala, and elsewhere. Here he found spiritual love in communities working for peace with justice. In Canada, he worked passionately as a social worker in the Trail hospital, an AA 5th Step listener, Castlegar City Councilor, hospice volunteer, KRUNA member and much more.
His love of nature and people flowered out at the Arrow Lakes cabin where many jokes, much laughter, fish stories, trails and tall tales were woven into the fabric of family and many friends. His love of dogs kept him strong, with several walks a day weaving a community around the house and neighbourhood.
Over the years, Bud became more and more aware of the need to embrace non-violence as a core value. He learned from the Doukhobor community, as well as from U.S., peace community members organizing to close the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. More recently, he’d begun working with Ann and other friends to call for an end to violence against women.
Bud had a long life full of love and laughter. He never stopped listening and learning from others. He touched many lives and inspired many more.
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Ann Godderis, Castlegar, BC