Leonard Cohen had simple funeral
Leonard Cohen’s funeral took place "exactly as he’d asked".
The iconic singer/songwriter died last week at the age of 82 and a private burial took place at Montreal’s Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery on Thursday (11.10.16) with just immediate family and "a few" friends in attendance, as his children Adam and Lorca stuck to the requests he had made in life.
Adam wrote on Facebook on Sunday (11.13.16): "My sister and I just buried my father in Montreal. With only immediate family and a few lifelong friends present, he was lowered into the ground in an unadorned pine box, next to his mother and father. Exactly as he’d asked."
The musician went on to pen a heartfelt tribute to his late father, praising his "dignity and elegance" and thanking him for everything he had passed on during his life.
He wrote: "As I write this I’m thinking of my father’s unique blend of self-deprecation and dignity, his approachable elegance, his charisma without audacity, his old-world gentlemanliness and the hand-forged tower of his work.
"There’s so much I wish I could thank him for, just one last time. I’d thank him for the comfort he always provided, for the wisdom he dispensed, for the marathon conversations, for his dazzling wit and humor. I’d thank him for giving me, and teaching me to love Montreal and Greece. And I’d thank him for music; first for his music which seduced me as a boy, then for his encouragement of my own music, and finally for the privilege of being able to make music with him."
Adam – whose mother is Suzanne Elrod – concluded his Facebook post with a thank you for the heartfelt messages he has received since news broke of his father’s passing.
He concluded: "Thank you for your kind messages, for the outpouring of sympathy and for your love of my father."
Rabbi Adam Scheier previously told Rolling Stone magazine that the ‘Hallelujah’ singer wanted to be buried in Montreal, "in a traditional Jewish rite beside his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents."
