MEMORIES OF AN OLD FRIEND

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This time I am sharing a tribute to the man I was married to for 31 years and also the father of our lovely daughter Tjorven and grandfather of our five wonderful grandchildren. Ron died from cancer on Monday the 11th of May. He became very good mates with my husband Ian and he was a regular friend to our house, Ron and I remained friends.

I would like to share a tribute from the West Cork Chamber Music Festival team, I quote;

“We are sad to hear that one of our earliest supporters and volunteers, Ron Victor, has passed away after a long illness. He was an integral and much-valued part of our team for many years.

In the early days, he and his then wife Agnes were generous supporters of West Cork Music and Ron then became the man who took care of moving all heavy equipment at the West Cork Chamber Music Festivals. So much goes on behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the Festival concerts and Ron’s contribution was vital. He made sure that everything which was needed in Bantry House, whether pianos, chairs, box office tables or boxes of wine, was there. Everything he did was with enthusiasm, energy and a smile which we all remember with great fondness.

Ron had a deep love of Baroque music and he spent so many hours listening to it while driving thousands of miles in his removal van, that he developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the repertoire by ear. It was his passion for Early Music which influenced Francis Humphrys’ decision to include it in the Festival programme.”

For a number of years, the Cork County Council harpsichord was transported to ten schools for a week of Baroque workshops in January and it was Ron who made this possible, moving the instrument carefully from school to school while seeing the music he loved being played for a new generation of music-lovers.

Ron was introduced to early music by his friend Antoon Tandt at age 18. The first composer he became familiar with was Heinrich Schutz, and especially his ‘Psalmen Davids’, during our time together it is what we shared most of all, our love of early music, it was a huge factor in our relationship and our daughter was brought up in a home resounding of music by Bach, Buxtehude, Schutz, Ockegem, Tallis, and many other fine composers.  Eventually Ron became involved with West Cork Chamber Music Festival and later with the East Cork Early Music Festival which he enjoyed very much. His love of beautiful music knew no bounds, he listened to it until close to the time he died. 

The team at East Cork Early Music Festival were also greatly saddened to learn that Ron Victor passed away. They said he was a great lover of early music, always smiling and was so helpful to our festival over many years.

Ron’s grandchildren also contributed some memories of their grandpa, I will just give a flavour of their thoughts. Hazel who is 13 years old said that she remembers her grandpa as an amazing, kind and funny person. Alice who is 11 has memories of all the gifts and sweets that her grandpa would bring back from his travels. Ruben who is aged 9 thinks of his grandpa as a superhero, he recons that he made the world. Jasmin aged 8 thought grandpa was funny and nice, she also thought that he was wise and she remembered his 70th birthday party and all the nice cake. Willow is only five and she remembers grandpa as being ‘young’, she also remembers that he took a lot of photos. It is lovely to hear the tributes of the grandchildren for their grandpa.

Ron ended up living in the Philippines where he had a new relationship towards the latter part of his life. He loved the life there, the natural world and the climate. He returned to Belgium for a visit and to organize some things. He was subsequently diagnosed with cancer and he remained with family who very kindly looked after him while he was undergoing treatment.

So we have been busy organising the funeral service in this time of Corona virus when people cannot travel or indeed when funerals are very private, that is no problem in its own and we were able to attend and all be together during Ron’s funeral service at the crematorium in Kortrijk via live video. I had the privilege of picking the music and choose some lovely pieces by Bach and Purcell. Many family members wrote beautifully worded farewell pieces. It was a beautiful service. A good send off to Ron and a solace for the family.

Rest in peace Ron, there will be many people who will miss you.

26 thoughts on “MEMORIES OF AN OLD FRIEND”

  1. Agnes, sterkte aan jou en de familie!
    Wat een mooie woorden door de kleinkinderen gesproken!
    Ik zit me nu af te vragen, heb ik Ron ontmoet tijdens het feest van Josephine?
    Een mooi eerbetoon aan een mooi mens! Laat muziek klinken in zijn naam! ❤

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  3. SO NICE !! I think together (You,Tjorven,Nathalie,Marleen & myself) that we gave him a beautiful funeral with a dignified farewell .. Goodbye pietje ..

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    1. Dank u David en Stefanie, ja het was een mooie uittocht. Thank you for always reading my blog and being very supportive, and enjoying it. A great pity you were not able to come here this year due to the Corona restrictions. ❤

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      1. Thank you, Agnes. Yes, I am well – apart from the usual hayfever at this time of year. Busy in the garden and knitting socks. I hope you are well yourself.

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      3. Glad to hear you are busy in the garden, Agnes. I understand you may soon be able to go out of your home again?

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  9. Agnes and family, I’m so sorry for your loss and it’s a wonderful thing that you were able to remain friends. His lov of music and baroque are familiar to me. My cousin is a baroque cellist. I’m not sure quite how to describe my era of violin playing I do play a fair bit of Bach but it’s in the Suzuki violin series I work through but I do enjoy it.I’ve been playing “New York” recently to vary things up a bit. He sounds like a very special and giving man.
    Take care and best wishes,
    Rowena

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    1. Thank you my friend, yes Ron was a kind man and we did share this great love for Early music, I was very privileged to pick the music for his funeral, and I picked all his favourite Bach pieces.

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      1. That’s lovely, Agnes and I also love to hear stories of people who are able to overcome to difficulties of breaking up and somehow stay friends.

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      2. The way I think….life is too short to hold a grudge. In a way I also think that you either grow apart or something else happens but there is no need to judge or blame, everybody grows at their own rate.

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