{"id":69291,"date":"2016-01-24T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2016-01-24T05:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=69291"},"modified":"2016-01-24T07:13:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T12:13:43","slug":"angelil-remembered-at-funeral-as-a-giant-and-a-loving-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/01\/24\/angelil-remembered-at-funeral-as-a-giant-and-a-loving-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Angelil remembered at funeral as a \u2018giant\u2019 and a loving father"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rene<\/a>
Rene Angelil (Photo from Flickr\/Nicolas Laffont)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2013 Rene Angelil\u2019s teenage son described his father as a \u201ctough act to follow\u201d Friday as he promised to take what he learned from the longtime impresario and pass it along to his little twin brothers.<\/p>\n

Rene-Charles Angelil, who will turn 15 on Monday, spoke for little more than a minute at his father\u2019s funeral on Friday as his superstar mother, Celine Dion, and more than 2,000 other people looked on at Montreal\u2019s Notre-Dame Basilica.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had a busy life but we were communicating through golf, hockey, poker and smoked meat,\u201d he said to laughter \u2013 \u201cand a lot of other wonderful food, bonding more and more as time went by.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou left me now with enough good memories of you to share with my younger brothers. As they grow older, without you being around, I\u2019ll make sure to pass on what I\u2019ve learned from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are a tough act to follow but with your help, everything is going to be fine. Dad, I promise you here that we\u2019re all going to live up to your standards. Je t\u2019aime papa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dion, 47, entered the church and walked to her seat holding the hands of Eddy and Nelson, the five-year-old twins she also had with Angelil, her longtime manager and husband who died of throat cancer at the age of 73 last week.<\/p>\n

The ceremony began at 3:20 p.m. with a taped rendition of Dion\u2019s version of the appropriately named \u201cTrois heures vingt,\u201d which was part of a service meticulously planned by Angelil.<\/p>\n

Patrick Angelil, one of the deceased\u2019s three adult children from two previous marriages, told the service his father was a loving man.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he couldn\u2019t always be there with us, he never missed a chance to declare his love for us,\u201d he said of Angelil. \u201cAll our life, our father told us, \u2018I love you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, more than ever, we realize how exceptional it was to have had a father who never hesitated to utter such precious words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angelil also said his father shared his passions, especially his love of gambling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were very young, we all learned we had to say \u2018Please\u2019 and \u2018Thank you,\u2019 that we had to look left and right before crossing the street and that at blackjack, if you have a five and a six, you have to double your bet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The service ended with a version of Dion\u2019s \u201cPour que tu m\u2019aimes encore\u201d playing, with the twins again by her side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dion then kissed the casket for several seconds, put her hand to her lips and touched the coffin with her hand once more.<\/p>\n

The singer\u2019s family accepted Premier Philippe Couillard\u2019s offer for the government to play a role in the organization of the funeral.<\/p>\n

The premier called Dion\u2019s international success a source of pride for Quebec and noted Angelil was there to help develop her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut today, we\u2019re not honouring Celine Dion\u2019s husband, we\u2019re honouring Rene Angelil himself, who did a lot for our culture to make it be known better all around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also honour the philanthropist, somebody who has been extremely active in our artistic and cultural community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney described Angelil as a \u201cterrific gentleman\u201d who will be sorely missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a giant, Rene, and together they created the biggest success story in showbiz in Canadian history,\u201d said Mulroney, who attended the couple\u2019s 1994 wedding at the basilica.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was in Davos for the World Economic Summit, was represented by his spouse, Sophie Gregoire.<\/p>\n

Composer Scott Price, Dion\u2019s musical director, said he was able to get to know Angelil after working with her since 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think manager, but he was also so creative and so involved in all the creative processes, all the artistic decisions,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a huge loss, irreplaceable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 With files from Stephanie Marin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2013 Rene Angelil\u2019s teenage son described his father as a \u201ctough act to follow\u201d Friday as he promised to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":68953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,2,106],"tags":[9636],"class_list":["post-69291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-cp","mauthors-sidhartha-banerjee","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}