(the gallery is five doors away from my nest!
yea almonte! thanks john c for the headsup! - jmp)

Sunday 19 November 2000

'He was my Romeo'

Pierre Trudeau's former wife, Margaret, tours an exhibit of exclusive
photos featuring the former prime minister, and talks to Bev Wake about the
man she 'loved more than life itself.'

When Pierre and Margaret Trudeau danced together at the Liberal Christmas
party in December 1974, it was as if there were no other people in the room.

Mr. Trudeau nestled his young wife to him -- his left hand resting
delicately on her right wrist, his other arm around her back -- as he
looked lovingly into her eyes. She returned his gaze, with a smile.

While walking through a photo exhibit featuring 45 pictures of her former
husband at the Philip K. Wood Gallery in Almonte on Friday, Mrs. Trudeau
Kemper rested her head against that 1974 photograph and cried for the
former prime minister, who died Sept. 28 of complications from prostate
cancer and Parkinson's disease.

"This picture makes me too sad, because if you look at it, our noses, our
smiles, our love, our eyes, our intimacy is perfect," she said after
composing herself.

"The wedding ring shows my hand is on his heart.

I couldn't be a happier woman."

Mrs. Trudeau Kemper took a private tour of the exhibit on Friday, one day
before it opened, with an assistant, the gallery owner and photographer Rod
MacIvor. As she walked through the gallery, she shared her memories with
Mr. MacIvor, likening her thoughts to the eulogy she never delivered for
Mr. Trudeau.

The couple wed on March 4, 1971 in a Catholic ceremony in North Vancouver.
She was 22; he was 51. They had three sons, Justin, Sacha and Michel,
before separating in 1977. The bond between the two remained strong despite
the breakup, and Mrs. Trudeau -- who later remarried and divorced -- helped
nurse her former husband during the days before his death at his home in
Montreal.

The photo exhibit, also a benefit for prostate cancer, includes 45
never-before-seen pictures of Mr. Trudeau. Many of them also include his
children and former wife. As Mrs. Trudeau Kemper reflected on the
photographs, she offered a glimpse of her former husband that provided
additional insight into his character.

Take the picture of Mr. Trudeau, prime minister of Canada for 15 years, in
his parka. It was snapped during a visit to Dealey Island in the North West
Territories, and the Maple Leaf in the middle of his tuque is slightly off
centre. "The Maple Leaf is not centred because I was not there to put it on
correctly," Mrs. Trudeau Kemper said. "He had to live a lot of years
without my help."

But the picture, a tight closeup, also reveals Mr. Trudeau's heritage, she
said. "Pierre was part Cree and had the strength of the aboriginal elders,"
Mrs. Trudeau Kemper said. "He was honoured by being made a golden eagle
chief of the Haida in 1976 in Masset, B.C. It is the one who brings light,
and he did bring light."

Then there's the shot of Mr. Trudeau with Terry Fox, who is showing him how
his prosthetic leg works. "Pierre was always curious about everything and
wanted to know how everything worked," Mrs. Trudeau Kemper said. "He always
had questions to ask, he always had time to listen."

And there's the picture taken in October 1972, when Mr. Trudeau was
appearing on CKWS in Kingston for an interview with another candidate. Upon
finding out the candidate was a doctor, he stuck out his tongue and asked,
"Do I look sickly?"

Mrs. Trudeau Kemper offers a slightly different interpretation. "That's a
yoga exercise that we did every day when we did yoga, because it is
excellent for strengthening your tongue when you have to do a lot of
speaking."

As is the case with many of the photos, Mrs. Trudeau Kemper's
interpretation is influenced by her relationship with the man and her love
for him. Upon analysing another closeup of Mr. Trudeau taken at a news
conference in the early 1970s, she explained why she was attracted to him.

"What I used to say about Pierre was that he was ugly-handsome. He was the
most handsome man I've ever seen and he was the ugliest man I have ever
seen. And I think that was the ying-yang of true love."

When she looked at a photograph of Mr. Trudeau holding their three children
at the airport, with her reaching out to him, she suggested the picture is
symbolic of their relationship. "The truth is, and I can say this clearly
now, is that our separation was a separation of a political nature, not a
separation of an intimate love nature," she said.

"It was not a separation of a family, it was not a separation of the true
love between a man and a woman. It was a separation of my role from being
prime minister's wife -- which was killing me."

As Mrs. Trudeau Kemper looked at a photograph of King Hussein of Jordan and
Queen Alia during a state dinner in the dining room of 24 Sussex Drive, she
was reminded of why she decided to leave her husband.

"My beautiful Queen Alia was killed in a helicopter accident soon before I
left Pierre. That was the last straw for me, because I never believed it
was an accident and it broke my heart," she said. "I lost somebody who
really understood what it was to bear the burden of being the wife of a
great, great, great man."

She voiced a similar thought when she looked at another picture taken in
1969. She smiled at the photo, taken at a gala at the National Gallery,
which she said was her first public date with her future husband. Just 20
years old, her hair is pulled back and she wears a gorgeous gown that she
picked up for just $20. "I was Juliet," she said. "He was Romeo, but he
wouldn't dress up. I told him just be black tie, just be my Romeo. We were
in love by now."

But the media attention, she recalled, was overwhelming, so they headed
back to the prime minister's home on Sussex Drive where they talked about
the pressures of dating the leader of the country.

"We decided that our love's beauty was its privacy and I didn't want any
attention on me: 'Please take out Barbra Streisand and all of those girls
who don't mind the publicity' " she said. "We then saw each other for a
year and a half privately while he did his public thing and it worked out
very well. I really did not want the public attention, so after we
separated, we knew it would continue to work out very well."

Prior to their separation, Mrs. Trudeau Kemper was presented with a set of
Nikon camera equipment by King Hussein and Queen Alia. She was told this
would allow her to look out, instead of always being looked at.

While Mrs. Trudeau Kemper decided on a private viewing of the exhibit, in
keeping with her plan not to do any public engagements until next year, she
hoped her visit would encourage others to support the fight against
prostate cancer and take pictures of their loved ones to comfort them after
a death. "I've been blessed. I have all these pictures of my husband and my
children, their lives, the exuberance, the enthusiasm, the vitality of this
man who I loved more than life itself," she said.

"To see him this way after I spent the last month helping him lose his
physicalness is a closure than I am so grateful for."

Bev Wake The Ottawa Citizen
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/001119/4898383.html

janet paterson, an akinetic rigid subtype parkie
53 now /44 dx cd / 43 onset cd /41 dx pd / 37 onset pd
TEL: 613 256 8340 URL: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/
EMAIL: [log in to unmask] SMAIL: POBox 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada