Column Chronicles: Obituary of Riles Klock at his wake

Obituary of Riles Klock at his wake

Frank Cotolo
October 24, 2024

What I say about Riles Klock is not just my opinion. Many people have the same opinion. Others do not. Some do not know nor have heard of Riles Klock so have have no opinions of him. Who then can agree with me that Riles was neither exceptional nor presentable? Certainly not in a crowd. When standing or sitting with others Riles was a member of the group, though he disliked being close enough to people that he was able to guess their weights, which he did with accute accuracy.

By and by, though, Riles strove to work with all muscles contributing to a project. He was left and right handed but only on odd and even days, respectively. Who among us has not lost multiple Pickleball games to him? You do not have to raise your hands. I know he took advantage of everyone under most circumstances but even those who did not know him knew he meant to be mean only to prove to people that no one can only love.

Riles had no children but he was a child once and he talked about it at arm wrestling conventions. He mentioned he had siblings, two brothers and five sisters, and he never got to know them well enough to understand why they all wore ski masks at holiday get-togethers.

I always said to him he should write about his life if only in a pamphlet to hand out to strangers. But Riles was modest and could be happy folding construction paper into odd shapes. He was that kind of a person.

What, though, will we remember most about Riles? Probably how he died. Few cases of home trapeze accidents are fatal these days so I guess we will always picture him bouncing off of a wall and falling head first upon his marble floor and we will all be thankful that he died immediately without suffering.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.