Duane Norman Phillips, 1967–2024

We’re going to pause our travel diary to pay our respects to Greg’s brother Duane, who passed away at his home on 18 April 2024 at the age of 56.

This picture was taken in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in October of 2022. Greg was there for work, and Duane drove the hour into town so they could have lunch together. It was the first time they’d seen each other since 2015, and was to be the last.

Duane had been in a serious motorcycle accident in 1992, which cost him a leg and a year in the hospital, seriously derailed the planned course of his life, and left him with multiple ongoing health issues. Duane was fiercely independent and, despite everything, lived another thirty-two years on his own terms. In the end, one of the legacies of his accident – a twice-ruptured aorta – came back and took his life.

Greg learned of Duane’s death on the afternoon we arrived in Honolulu, from the New Brunswick RCMP by way of the Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada.

Duane was a very private person, particularly in his later years, and we’re going to respect that privacy by not giving further details of his life or of his death.

May his memory be a blessing.