Visit to Kate’s monument at St-Sauveur Parish Cemetery.

This past week was all about Kate, and what a week it was. The family got to see the new monument for the first time on Sun Aug 4. The simple white stone designed by Rufus and Martha and executed by the Brunet family of Ormstown is a fitting tribute to the lovely talented Kate. Her drawing of ‘Skigirl’ graces the front of the stone and on the back is a banjo incorporating lyrics from Kate’s Talk to Me of Mendocino drawn by Rufus.

On Aug. 7 the Place Kate-McGarrigle, a new parkette, on Laurier near Querbes in Outremont, was officially opened and amidst all the speeches and tributes was a special one by Kate’s old friend and piper Ken Mackenzie. Upon hearing the stirring pipes, the President of the Outremont Historical Society turned to me and said ‘I thought you were of Irish and French descent?’ Well, we are mostly, but our paternal grandmother was Joanna Gillis of Fairville, N.B. and for sure we’ve also got good old Native Canadian blood on my mother’s side, like most French-Canadians.

On the evening of Aug 8 the family along with special guests, Robert Charlebois, Marie-Michele Desrosiers, Michel Rivard, Fanny Bloom and Pierre Lapointe did two pretty amazing back-to-back concerts at the Outremont Theatre on Bernard Ouest, in aid of the Kate McGarrigle Fund for Cancer Research. This was followed by an all-night party at Campbell Hendery’s place in the Mile-End..I’m still recovering. Merci, mercy…thank you.

A video I shot at the cemetery intercut with Ken at Place Kate.

Unveiling of Kate’s monument in St Sauveur Parish Cemetery Aug 4 2013. from a. lanken on Vimeo.

Tags: kate mcgarrigle, martha wainwright, rufus wainwright