In both cases, the spent hours putting them together and they couldn't reveal the picture at the end.
This is a metaphor about life.
Each life is a piece of our puzzle?
Or, was Sid trying to understand the puzzle of his own existence. Were puzzles a simple metaphor for a life misunderstood and misplaced and misspent?
Sid was a great Papa, and a decent Dad and an uneven Husband and Lover, and a Great and misunderstood Son. Sid was an unending project and a possibility of greatness and sadness and the unexpected joy and hatred of the past wrapped in a sensitive layer of smiles and smirks and grumpy displays of anger.
Sid was a puzzle.
We would spend hours putting him together and revealing stories at the end.
This is an analogy of life?
Each memory is a suggestion of what the puzzle might be?
Our brains are tricking us into seeking calm in the chaos and entropy of the past?
Sidney always a child seeking his own comfort and love. Puzzles were simply a metaphor for love misunderstood and misplaced and misspent?
Sid was a great Papa, and a very good Father-in-Law, and an exceptional neighbour. Sid wasn't a finished project, but he had realized the importance of joy and acceptance and the unconditional love of his family.
Sid loved his grandkids. He loved Sean and Lynae and Andrea and Nick and Noodle and his namesake Sidney and his buddy Hec-a-loo.
Sid was a puzzle - hours together didn't reveal the whole of his story.
That is life.
Each remembrance is a suggestion of what we wanted things to be?
Our brains are constructing the puzzles to our past?
I think Sid was always seeking the centre of his story. But the corners of his puzzle were too vague. He wanted to find the centre of a world scattered and chaotic. And when it finally came he was too proud to be a perfect husband, too old and scared to be a perfect Dad, and just scarred enough to be a perfect Papa.
We miss you Sidney. You are always the empty chair at our feasts, the empty smile in our warm hearts and the multi-sided missing piece of love we all cherish and cling to forever.
Your piece has faded from the picture, but our lives only make sense and our futures are only possible because of the place you will always hold in the puzzle of our lives.
