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In memory of those who have Crossed the Bar
JOHNSON, Bryant - (09 July 1940 - 26 January 2023) was born in Montreal, raised in Two Mountains, and set off to sea with the aforementioned and beloved Royal Canadian Navy when he was 16 years old, having dropped out of high school in grade 9. Five cherished years later he put the navy years behind him, at age 21, with many a story to be told of those days to friends or a son, over a rum or two, in the years ahead. For instance, the day he got back to Two Mountains from the navy, he walked straight into the house he had grown up in, threw his duffel bags on the couch and made himself a sandwich out of some odds and ends he'd found in the fridge. He'd just joined his bag on the couch when he learned, awkwardly, that he was in the home of a strange family... his own having moved out a month and a half earlier, to a house a few blocks away. The news of such an occurrence got lost along with a letter, and did not reach the son until the lady who'd been out back hanging clothes on the line, came in and noticed him on her couch.
He made his way out, sandwich in hand, and to his new home...and from there on- in a nutshell- he was fated to meet my mom, Sandra Lynn Tompkins, who lived in a house just four houses up from the new place. They got married and had kids (my sister Andrea and I, Russ). All the while raising a family with Sandy, Bry joined his father, Charles Johnson, in the then 11 year-old family business. Charles Johnson and Son (later &Fils) was a great little haberdashery with British tastes on Phillip's Place, between Dorchester (later Renee Levesque) and St Catherine's Street...less than a hundred yards down the from a favourite lunch-spot, the always interesting Phillip's Square.
Bryant learned the trade and networking from Charles, and eventually took over the reins of the store when his father's health worsened in his later years, before passing away in the early 80's. Bryant expanded the business and then bought the building it was located in, becoming his own landlord. Custom suits in Chas Johnson &Fils were made to measure on the premises, by master tailors... along with the later addition of kilts to order or rent. The successful business closed doors for good, on the owner's terms, in the late 2000's. Over a fifty year span, Bryant Johnson served well known politicians and entertainers, he served Anglophones with French names, and Francophones with Scottish names, and with every client who entered the immaculate and friendly shop -the tall and the short, the thin and the stout, the men and women- all were greeted with a fair and well-read mind, a firm handshake and a friendly demeanor, coupled with good conversation and better sense of humour...
A great deal of dad's success as a business owner and as a person was that he genuinely enjoyed people, and in turn, people enjoyed my dad.
In his later, semi and fully-retired years, he spent more time enjoying the two small yachts he owned in succession. He loved being out on the water with my mom, a friend, or even all alone. For a kid who left the navy at the same lowly rank he entered it, just to be Captain of his own one-boat-fleet, and of his own fate and day while on the water, had to be a dream come true for him, and it certainly made the man happy. "The boat" is where many books got read, the naps came easy with a gentle rocking, and the breeze kept the bugs away and a person cool on the hottest days. As a member and then Commodore of the aforementioned LRYC and then later, the Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club, he found those of similar interests and enjoyed much of his retirement at the clubs....and we know he would appreciate a quick nod to the great people he met at both clubs along the way.
When I saw him at Christmas (I work up in Nunavik 9 months of the year), Dad's mind was slipping away quickly, and he knew it. He would very clearly enunciate sentences of pure gibberish, and realize fully what had come out of his mouth was not what he intended at all...followed by a laugh and, "F*** it." I knew then that time was short. For a true character like my dad to not be able to share in a joke or in some banter, or not be one of the sharpest minds in the room, was too far gone..."Tolerable" was a word he used to explain his physical life over the last few years of hardship, but the fate he was heading towards would not be tolerable, so he simply knew that it was time to go...and went. As a family, we offer many thanks to everyone at le CHSLD Chateau Westmount that came to love Dad, while they were caring for him over the last couple of years....You all have our appreciation and affections.
Dad didn't want a viewing or a funeral, so we will be having a gathering at some point in the warmer months for family and close friends, for some shared laughs and love. For now, just know he will soon be joining Mom on the mantle for a while. Bryant Johnson was a well-read, convivial guy. He was a proud man, a proud Canadian, and a proud Montrealer...never once considering packing things up through the tougher times in the province and city. "Montreal will always be here," he used to say. He spent the vast majority of his life on this island he loved and knew well, and refused to move away from where he was born in his elderly years, so he could live out his days here, and die here...
And so he did.
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