Peter Gzowski died yesterday

It's probably only Canadians on here (or Americans with access to CBC Radio International) who would know who Peter Gzowski is, but he died yesterday and the CBC has been covering it with wonderful retrospectives and memorial interviews with those whom he knew best. Of course, he kind of knew the whole country really well, and was instrumental in bringing about a sense of togetherness and empathy across the country through the means of his daily morning radio talk show on CBC Radio which he hosted for many years.

I always identified with and appreciated Peter Gzowski as someone who genuinely cared about people and strove to understand them. Actually, I don't think he had to strive to understand anyone; it just came naturally to him. But he was an extremely intelligent and articulate person, a great writer and community worker, and at least in some part, an inspiration to me. Even though I've never met him personally, he made me feel as though he knew me, too. I was sad to hear of his passing yesterday afternoon.