August 3 2019: GRENON, Joseph “Joe”

Joseph “Joe” Grenon

On Wednesday July 23, 2019, Joseph “Joe” Grenon passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. He is survived by his two brothers, sister, numerous nieces and nephews, and his faithful dog, Iko, who has been adopted by his family.

Joe was born October 2^nd 1952 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The last of four siblings, he came into a world surrounded by love and left the world with them by his side. We all knew Joe with different hats on – brother, uncle, friend, acquaintance. Our memories of him are coloured by the passage of years and the stages of life in which we knew him.

His sunny childhood was spent blueberry picking, swimming at Mine Mill Beach, and swinging on monkey bars. There were mountains to be explored, tunnels to be followed, and beaver dams to be discovered. He and his brother, David, would build roads in sand piles and dirt that took them to new lands and far-off places. Highways to great cities and isolated islands, constructed with the imagination of 10-year-old boys, came into being only to be washed away by rain and the autumn weather. Summers gave way to winters equally magical and adventurous.  Toboggans were connected to a Renault Dauphine, and kids, who often used their feet as emergency brakes, were towed down snowy streets by a mother who didn’t always realize the force of the car’s brakes.

There were chores to be done, TVs to be fixed, soda coolers to stock, odd jobs to be completed. The kids grew, and Joe’s intellect began to shine. An Ontario Scholar, Joe completed a year of architectural design at the University of Toronto before settling into and graduating with a BFA in photography studies from Ryerson University. After graduation, those old dirt roads Joe once followed in his dreams became the highways of Canada’s west. In Lloydminster and Edmonton, Joe worked in retail and then for the ground crew of Pacific Western Airlines. It was on vacation in Hawaii when Joe met the late Emory William (“Bill”) Reisinger III, who would become his partner in love and life. Bill convinced Joe to move to the United States and they made their home in Alexandria, Virginia, where Joe found he had a knack for restoring antiques of metal and wood. Joe also continued to wear many other hats, writing for the Hamilton Ontario Spectator, playing the role of Steve in A Streetcar Named Desire, and serving on the Floor Committee of Washington’s National Cotillion. In 1988, he was one of ten participants chosen for the Annual Perspectives in Conservation Invitational Workshop in Ottawa, Canada.

In Alexandria, he and Bill owned and operated The Place Where Louie Dwells, named for Bill’s former restaurant, where they dealt in antiques and restored furniture. Joe became renowned as a restorer of all things wood and brought back to life countless artifacts, from the smallest family heirlooms to pieces of American history from the White House, to the grand doors of the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square. It was through his skill as a restorer that he met his late, life-long friends, Mario and Elsbeth Werner, who remained pillars in his life until their passing.

Sadly, Bill passed away and a devastating fire destroyed The Place Where Louie Dwells, taking Joe away from Alexandria and the D.C. area for several years. Eventually, he returned and took on ownership of Awesome Metals Restoration in Kensington, Maryland, where he extended his restoration talents to metals such as silver, bronze, brass, and zinc dye cast and to the intricacies of porcelain and china. He was a man of many talents and a resource for so many that knew him. He remained in Kensington for the rest of his time, where he made many friends and adopted his best friend, Iko, a faithful Australian shepherd.

Later in life, Joe got into white water kayaking and found a passion for and sense of peace with being on the river. And even though Iko had a decided dislike for the water, it was not uncommon to find him right next to Joe, wearing his doggy lifejacket and standing sentinel as Joe’s protector. The two were inseparable until Joe’s passing.

Just as Joe conquered streams and rivers, he conquered the hearts of all who knew him. Joe had a reputation for being extremely passionate, and although he had some difficulty controlling its delivery, his compassion shone through and endeared him to the folks around him. It was not always easy to care for Joe in his final years, but the love he showed others came back to him tenfold toward the end. He was and his family are sincerely grateful to all those involved. We are particularly grateful to Dr. Hwang and his staff at Kaiser Permanente, Gaithersburg, to Joe’s long-standing physician at Kaiser, Dr. Cameron, and to Nurse Helen Wells and the rest of the team from Montgomery Hospice for their compassionate and diligent care. He will be remembered ardently by his friends and family and deeply missed.

Rest well, Joe, in love and peace.

 

We will not stand at your grave and weep

You are not there, you do not sleep

You are a thousand winds that blow

You are the diamond glints on the snow

You are the sunlight on ripened grain

You are the gentle autumn rain

When we awake in the morning hush

You are the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight

You are the soft stars that shine at night

We will not stand at your grave and cry

You are not there, you did not die

 

• Adapted from Mary Elizabeth Frye’s Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep