Gordon Postill:
CLASS OF 1967
Leaside High SchoolClass of 1967
Toronto, ON
Victoria UniversityClass of 1980
Toronto, ON
Northern Secondary SchoolClass of 1967
Toronto, ON
Hodgson Senior Public SchoolClass of 1962
Toronto, ON
Maurice Cody SchoolClass of 1961
Toronto, ON
Gordon's Story
If you'd like to get in touch, please text or call me on my cell: 438-453-8414. Hope all is well!
May blessings abound!
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Written December 2024
Glad to report that after a wonderful 11 months in Montreal, which gave me the space and time to reset my life for this next chapter, I moved back to Toronto, my hometown, on December 1st. I am really looking forward to discovering what the city now offers and connecting with former classmates and colleagues. Moreover, I am living in a terrific apartment on Redpath Avenue near Yonge and Eglinton.
The last 3.5+ years have been excruciatingly brutal as I've attempted to come to terms with my beloved Robin's death from early-onset Alzheimer's in January 2021. Thankfully I am now starting to get my game back!
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Written February 2021
Robin Young Postill, my soul mate and best friend for almost 38 years, died comfortably on January 29, 2021 in Boston at the age of 67 as a result of early-onset Alzheimer's. I had the privilege and honor to care for my beloved over the past 5-7 years and helped her to live as fully, joyously, and safely for as long as possible. Mercifully Robin died before she had to endure a prolonged period without any quality of life. That being said, my heart will ache forever. She blessed me beyond measure.
Graced
Four days before Robin died I sat at her bedside and stroked her forehead. For over a week she had been mostly unresponsive, comfortable, and breathing slowly with her eyes shut. The previous six years for us had been nothing short of profound, heart-breaking, staggering, daunting, and transformative. With the finish line now mercifully in sight, I felt anguish and relief. During the last several months I had repeatedly been thanking Robin for loving me. However on this occasion, two additional words spontaneously spilled out of my mouth. I found myself thanking Robin for loving me so completely. Once uttered, those two words perfectly completed what I had been longing to convey to Robin before she died. Although convinced I’d never know for certain, I nonetheless hoped against hope that she had heard me. Soon what looked like a tiny tear astonishingly emerged from under the middle of her closed left eyelid. While I gazed at what was incredulously happening, Robin turned her head ever so slightly towards me, and a fully formed tear ran down her left cheek. I wept.
Written September 2021
Glad to announce that my new memoir "CALLED! A LONGSHOT'S STORY" was just published in September 2021 by FriesenPress (a Canadian publishing company in Victoria, BC) and is now available on Amazon. Yippee! Here's a brief summary about me, the book, and why the book could be of interest to others.
Throughout my 24 years as a hospice chaplain and 35 years of ministry altogether, I helped thousands of people, acquired extensive professional expertise, and was held in high regard. However, my memoir "Called! A Longshot's Story" truthfully recounts a radically different, earlier period in my life when I struggled with personal demons such as existential despair, addiction, and aimlessness before an astonishing call to ministry propelled me forward towards well-being. I fervently hope my "longshot" story will inspire folks, especially those desperately longing for a second-chance, and also prompt a wide range of readers to truthfully examine their own stories and perhaps discover some important insights which had previously eluded them.
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Written May 2017
So glad to have attended the "I Can't Wait" informal reunion of my Maurice Cody Public School Class on April 23, 2017. Eleven of us along with four spouses met at the Marche Restaurant in downtown Toronto. We thoroughly enjoyed 4 hours together with some great food! Gatherings like this have become extra special now that the sand has really been picking up steam pouring through the hour glass! My best to all for...Expand for more
mer classmates!
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Written June 2016
While visiting friends in Toronto, I was able to attend the 100th Anniversary of Hodgson Senior Public School on May 14, 2016. Wonderful to see former classmates (many of whom I had not seen since 1963!) from Maurice Cody public school, Hodgson, and Northern Secondary School. Catching up with each other was very special and a lot of fun!
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Written December 2015
As part of the formal retirement process from The United Church of Canada in December 2015, I needed to submit a brief biographical sketch about my life since ordination in 1980. Voila.
As I reflect back upon the last thirty-four years following my ordination in 1980, gratitude by far is my most prevailing emotion. I also know all too well that my life could have easily turned out much differently. Without my seemingly over-the-top Damascus-road call to ministry in 1976 and the subsequent affirming endorsement by Timothy Eaton Memorial Church of me as a candidate for ministry (1977-1980), a well-established debauched lifestyle would have most certainly ensured me of an early and ignominious grave.
While serving the 3-point Margaree Pastoral Charge, I met my eventual wife and best friend Robin in a chance encounter on a Cape Breton beach in 1981. Robin and her sister were vacationing from Boston while I was faithfully attending to my beach ministry. During our thirty-one years of marriage, Robin with her integrity, wisdom, and loving companionship has blessed me beyond measure.
For me, the first decade after my ordination was particularly pivotal and formative. Psychotherapy, several advanced units of Clinical Pastoral Education, and a dynamic Doctor of Ministry program at Boston University enabled me to embark on what has proven to be a lifelong, sometimes quite arduous, learning process. Against steep odds at times, varied guises of considerable serendipitous good fortune have helped me to land on my feet, particularly on those numerous occasions when I couldn't get out of my own way.
My congregational experience included the Margaree Pastoral Charge (1980-1983), St. Andrews United Church, Oshawa (1986-1990), and a 6-month interim ministry at Cambridge Street United Church, Lindsay (1990-1991). For the past twenty-three years (and still counting), I have been providing spiritual care as a Board Certified Chaplain to terminally ill hospice patients and their families in Naples, Florida (1991-2002) and in the Boston area since 2003. Without question, those to whom I have ministered over the past thirty-four years, as well as longtime cherished mentors, have greatly enriched my life. I am forever grateful.
Along the way, I have been fortunate to acquire a high level of expertise in end-of-life health care ethics and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). In March, 2002 I had the privilege of being selected as the leader of a special CISM team flown from Naples, Florida to New York City for a profound week of debriefing NYPD personnel directly affected by the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. More recently, I just completed my tenth and final term as the Ethics Committee Chair of the Hospice & Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts. These two additional professional pursuits, meaningful and fulfilling in their own right, have also given me much-needed periodic respite from the cumulative sadness inherent in full-time hospice ministry.
Awesome hikes on vacations with Robin in such magnificent settings as Yosemite and the Canadian Rockies, 5K-marathon running (ran the 1986 Boston Marathon), leisurely walks in bucolic New England, poetry recitation, quiet and introspective times at home, colleagues and dear friends have constantly replenished and expanded my soul. I shall always be grateful to The United Church of Canada, especially Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, for believing in me when I was a longshot at best!
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