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(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