Jamie Westcott would have turned 45 today.His father, Clare, shares his thoughts about Jamie and what the young and enthusiastic Toronto Sun police reporter might have become had he not died at 25 of brain cancer on June 13, 1989.
"If he was still with us, he might well have made it to editor of the Sun, or at least a star columnist," says Clare, a former Toronto police commissioner and citizen court judge with a lengthy career in Queen's Park politics.
Sun vets who worked with Jamie for two years remember a good-natured young man who was determined to not let cancer prevent him from being a good reporter - and he succeeded. They remember the passion for the job and the smile.
(The photo above catches Jamie grabbing his gear in the Sun newsroom and heading out the door to cover a police beat story.)
Before he died at Scarborough General Hospital, where he was born May 30, 1964, Jamie was told he would be remembered by all who knew him and by recipients of a new Jamie Westcott Memorial Award for crime reporting.
(With June 13 being the 20th anniversary of his death, family, friends and former colleagues who want to share their memories of Jamie are invited to e-mail TSF.)
Clare says he is sure Jamie would want them to remember his 25 years among them, not his passing.
"Jamie loved sayings and he used to doodle in his Sun copy books and make up lines. I don't know where this one comes from, but for some reason it makes me think of Jamie's state of mind and his attitude in those last days in 1989, April through June. He was so very brave."
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning how to dance in the rain
Anonymous
Oh my. Twenty years. His picture is on the cop desk wall, next to Mark Stewart's, who also died of cancer. Among two of the best on the beat.
ReplyDeleteRob Lamberti
Chair
Toronto Sun Unit
CEP Local 87M