SANTA MICHAEL
To mark Canada’s sesquicentennial, the Citizen’s Bruce Deachman met and photographed 150 people in the Ottawa area, encouraging them to tell their stories that painted an intimate portrait of the region and the people who live, work and play here. The series, which was published daily leading up to Canada Day, was called Capital Voices. It continues on a somewhat less rigorously defined schedule.
Carleton University, Dec. 2, 2017.
“The story all revolves around this suit. It was given to me by a close friend of mine. It’s vintage — about 45 years old.
“It was given to me by a friend of mine. It belonged to his late husband. I had met the couple back in 2013. We did a quick visit. My husband did a house concert at their place, and I met Larry that evening and he told me what he did.
“He headed an organization called Santa Canada, and he would dress up as Santa and go visit children in the hospital who are terminally ill or in palliative care. He would do this any time of year. With 48 hours’ notice, he would go, any time of year. And not just one time, either; he would go visit them again.
“Larry was suffering from cancer at the time, and he passed away six weeks after I met him. And on his deathbed, he willed this suit to me, just based on the conversation we had that evening. So he asked his surviving partner to get this to me when I was ready. When I was ready to do what he did. So I got this suit last summer.
“And so that’s what I’m starting to do. I’m just in the initial stages; I’ve done private house parties for friends, and I’ve opened a Christmas concert as Santa, but my main focus is to do home and hospice visits for children, one-on-one, any time of year, just because they want to see Santa.
“The suit belonged to Santa Larry, in Hamilton. He, himself, inherited the suit from Jimmy Lomax, a famous Santa in Hamilton who did a lot of fundraisers. Jimmy passed away in 2010. So this suit has a history of charitable work and fundraising; I feel it’s embedded in the fibre.
“In 2013, I knew what Larry was doing but I had no idea he would pick me to continue on his legacy. It took a couple of years after his death for me to find out that he’d left the suit to me. It was on Dec. 23, which is also the anniversary of the day that my father passed away. I was in tears; I was an emotional wreck. I was sitting on the bus and I got the message on Facebook that Larry left it to me. I was feeling sad because, like I said, it was the anniversary of my father’s passing in 2003. I always feel nostalgic on that day, and then this came along.”