Independent… alert… well-read… warm… determined… feisty…
Colonel Michel Drapeau, barrister and solicitor, uses all these words to describe his dear friend and client, Betty Riddell. And he uses two others as well, extremely generous.
Up to the day of her passing at age 96, Betty was a friend of the arts, says Colonel Drapeau. “She attended the NAC on a regular basis. It’s something we had in common. Every time my wife, Nicole, and I saw Betty one of the first things she would ask us: “Have you been to the NAC lately?”
Betty combined her generosity with her love for the performing arts by making a generous bequest to the NAC. “She recognized that she could make a difference,” says Colonel Drapeau, Betty’s lawyer and the executor of her will. “She left money for many organizations but the NAC was at the top of her list.”
As an NAC subscriber for 30 years, Betty spent many enjoyable hours attending theatre performances and classical music concerts. She wanted to give future generations the same opportunity. “The bequest is a sign of Betty’s generosity,” Colonel Drapeau says. “She was committed to the collective good. She put her mind to making a difference.”
In addition to sharing a passion for classical music, Betty and Colonel Drapeau had many things in common. Both have a background in the military – Betty spent 35 months as a nursing officer in the United States Army during the second World War. In fact, it was a mutual friend, a military officer, who introduced the two several years ago. “We hit it off instantly,” recalls Colonel Drapeau. “The military was a unifying bond between us.”
Today Colonel Drapeau is very grateful that Betty’s legacy, her passion for the arts, will continue to enrich lives into the future. “Her memory will live on,” he says. “She’s going to touch the lives of many people for years to come.”
Betty’s memory and generosity will be celebrated through the Ovation Series – a series of musical brilliance. Thanks in part to Betty’s foresight the series can continue to bring in world-renown artists including pianists, Yefim Bronfman, and Inon Barnata as well as L’Orchestre Métropolitain.
“Betty would be very proud to help support the Ovation Series, knowing how much people will enjoy the music” says Colonel Drapeau. “She would smile – a smile would reach her eyes and stretch right across her face. And she would be thinking, mission accomplished.”
Like Betty, you too can designate a legacy gift to a specific area of performance, creation or learning. For more information about making a bequest to the NAC please contact Barry Bloom at the NAC Foundation at 613 947-7000 ext. 314.
This story appears in the Winter 2013 issue of Full Circle