Apparently, despite attempts to revive him at the scene, it seems that Jay never recovered consciousness. He must have been thrown from his bike, hit his head really hard, or God forbid he was run over. He may have died instantly. I don't know. Maybe he fell into the path of the truck. Nevertheless it seems like a cruel way for this kind and caring man's life to end: flung to the pavement and left for dead. The driver of the vehicle didn't stop; perhaps was not aware that anything had happened? I don't know. Others showed up and tried to help.
The whole thing just seems like a freak accident. A twist of fate. An uncommon and unjust blip in the universe.
As I get older, I am less surprised by strange turns of events like this. There is less rhyme and reason than we want there to be in the world. The entire creation is an experiment in random expressions of beauty and ugliness, joy and sorrow, order and chaos.
Jay was my teaching colleague at Viscount Montgomery. He was a man whom I would call my friend, with whom I had shared many a conversation, and with whom I shared many values and things in common. Now in glory, whatever that is. He trusted in God, he trusted in the Universe. He has now been swallowed back into creation. I feel the loss.
Jay was 53. Just a year younger than me. A week before this event he sat and dined with Brenda, Ian, Olivia at the HWETL Awards banquet. They were finished their music set, and Jay made sure that they got a table and food and were taken care of.
Jay had stayed late at Prince of Wales School to watch the school volleyball team and cheer them on. He taught kindergarten there. He was on the road in the dark, simply because he had cared about his school community.
Jay was a man who seemed incapable of having a mean thought or holding a grudge. He was 100% determined to get busy doing good in whatever way he could. He was a man who put actions behind his words, who made things happen, who took the jobs that nobody else wanted. He managed our HWETL Benevolent Fund. He managed the annual awarding of bursaries. He ran for office. He volunteered as a workplace steward. He led committees at his church. There is nobody else that I can think of who represents the idea of "100% all-in."
Jay was a tireless idealist who always had something to say about what we could be doing to improve the situation for someone else. He didn't hold his ideas in, to the point of wearing out the ears of those of us who were less gung-ho about the force of doing good. But nobody ever complained because we knew in our hearts that Jay was a good man through and through.
A man incapable of ill-will or laziness.
Good-bye Jay Keddy. You will be missed for a long, long time.
