By JOSHUA ALLAN

The 1510 West

The fire that destroyed the Collins Clarke MacGillivray White funeral home in Pointe Claire last Wednesday was like losing an “icon in the community,” say some Pointe Claire residents.

The establishment, just off Highway 20 at Cartier Avenue, opened in the 1960s, quickly becoming the go-to option for funerals and memorial services for many residents of Pointe Claire, said resident Terry O’Shaughnessy.

“Both my parents, my grandparents were waked from there, some aunts and uncles, some neighbours, friends,” O’Shaughnessy said. “It’s sort of like a place for our family history that’s now gone.”

“Collins,” as it was often referred to, had been a part of the family history for many residents of the West Island, including Donna Cameron, a lifelong resident of Pointe Claire.

It was where Cameron’s family held a wake for her brother, and later for her father.

“It really is the funeral home,” she said. “Whenever one of my friends’ parents passed away, or neighbours, or people that you know in Pointe Claire, it’s rare that it’s not at Collins.”

Cameron said she witnessed the smoke from the fire rising into the sky while driving home on Highway 20 last Wednesday.

“Just seeing it burning brought back all those memories,” she said, recalling the many wakes and visitations of friends and family she attended over the years at the funeral home. 

Collins had also contained a columbarium which had not been spared by the fire.

Cameron said she knows people who kept the ashes of deceased family members in the columbarium.

“My mother called me and was quite upset because her friend’s husband’s (ashes) were in there,” Cameron said. “She actually had made plans to join her husband, put her urn in there as well.”

Pointe Claire Mayor Tim Thomas took to social media last Wednesday to express his sympathies regarding the fire.

“Collins served several generations of Pointe Claire citizens in their time of need and is an important part of our community,” he wrote. Montreal’s fire service is currently investigating the cause of the fire and has yet to disclose the cause of the blaze.