So smiling, all the time. So kind, so generous, so warm too. So dedicated and so imaginative, too. So cheerful, like a merchant of happiness and, despite everything, so young to leave like this, suddenly, at barely 54 years old.
The world of golf in Quebec is in mourning. The pro and director of the Bellechasse club, Alain Simard, died suddenly Sunday morning. According to his son Philippe, an autopsy will be carried out but, at first glance, everything suggests that he was the victim of a brain aneurysm.
“He was taking a shower before leaving for his annual fishing trip with his friends Fred Colgan, Steve Careau and Camil Lacroix,” said the grieving son, “when my mother heard him fall. An hour later, at the CHUL in Quebec, the death was confirmed. It’s so unexpected, so unreal.”
And since then, Philippe Simard, his mother Bianca and his sister Molly have been plunged into a whirlwind of emotions, jostled in a roller coaster of moods that are sometimes calm, sometimes dizzying. Losing your husband, losing your father on Father’s Day… who wants to experience that?
But Alain Simard, for those who knew him, who had any contact with him, can only leave beautiful memories. To all the qualities mentioned at the beginning of this text, it is possible to add many others. Moreover, on social networks, the tributes, coming from all over Quebec, did not fail to underline the greatness of this man who, even if he remained quite discreet, did not go unnoticed.
He was not looking for glory, fame, he simply wanted everything to work well, for projects to succeed and, above all, for the people he met, friends and club members alike, to be happy. This is how, since the announcement of his departure, at the Bellechasse field where he was in his fifth season, he has been spoken of as “the soul of the club”, and at the Beauceville club, where he worked for 27 years, around a hundred members gathered Monday on the terrace of the chalet, rose to toast in his honor, without forgetting the multiple tributes flooding the web.
“I like to say,” says Philippe Simard in a voice mixing the beautiful and the painful, “that my father was a great man. He sacrificed himself for his golf and his family. He was reassuring. He often gave chances to many people. With him, business partners quickly became friends. Yes, he really was a seller of happiness!”
On its Facebook page, the Bellechasse golf club announced that a great void has been created with the death of this dedicated man.
“Alain had this way of doing things, this openness, which made everyone feel appreciated and listened to in his company. Family man, very talented golfer, faithful friend, Alain will leave a great void behind him,” we can read in the Bellechasse club comment.
The young professional Josée Doyon, to whom I announced the sad news, was downright stunned.
“It’s crazy, it’s not possible,” she says, surprised and shaken. He was an incredible man who had an infectious smile. He is the reason why I continued golf and was able to develop when I was at the Beauceville golf club.
Richard Poulin, who was trained as a golf pro at the same time as Alain Simard by Vincent Siriani at the Sainte-Marie club, in Beauce, said he was in total shock the day after the death of this long-time friend.
“As he wanted everyone to be well,” he recalls, “and as he wanted everyone to be content, happy, Alain put a lot of pressure on himself. He was so intense!”
“My father,” concludes Philippe Simard, “lived at 1000 kilometers/hour. He may have lived 54 years, but he lived them to the fullest. It’s as if he had had a life of 80 years, he did so much, he devoted himself so much.”
Obviously, GML would like to convey its sympathies to those close to Alain Simard, to his family, of course, to his friends and to the members of the Bellechasse club who are losing much more than a professional.
