Alan Yeoman was an artist and lived the life of an artist. The first son and second of seven children born to Mark and Sylvia (Monies) Yeoman, as a child Alan could draw and build with amazing technical skill. He especially loved cars, creating intricately detailed drawings and models, and his interest in them continued all his life as he found battered old treasures and rebuilt them into sporty, road-hugging beauties.
Schooling didn't interest Alan so much. The lack of imagination and the rigidity of the system left him bored and frustrated. He briefly went to university, a few of them in fact, but the social life was much more interesting than the academics and he didn't finish. After trying his hand at several things, he found work in the theatre world as a set decorator and that became his home.
Theatre took Alan across the country: Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C.; Calgary; Stratford, Ont., and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.; Montreal; and Wolfville, N.S. Somewhat nomadic, he would move around for the various theatre seasons. But Montreal and the Centaur Theatre Co. eventually became his chosen place and he lived and worked there happily over the past several years.
Alan made stage sets come alive with his creativity and attention to detail and nothing delighted him so much as showing an interested visitor what he was working on or watching the play together, explaining every piece on the stage - with occasional insider gossip about the actors.
As a teenager, Alan was the coolest of the cool and it was always an honour to be allowed to tag along with him and his friends. Years later, going to an after-party with him at the close of a theatrical run, as friends and co-workers called out for his attention, it was clear he was still the coolest kid.
Shaggy hair, glasses, crooked smile and a hand-rolled cigarette - that was Alan. Part of his coolness was his independent spirit. From the beginning, he was who he was. He was quiet and quirky and intense and wacky and passionate. Jolly uncle, loyal friend, beloved son and stalwart big brother. You could tell him your secrets.
Alan loved music, books, television, politics. He had been following the American election, despite chemo, radiation, surgery and ever-weakening health. He desperately wanted to know if Barack Obama would win, so much so that he seemed to be hanging on for the chance to see that world-changing moment. But he didn't quite make it. He died very early on the morning of Nov. 4, 2008, U.S. election day. Friends and family came from across the country and had a party, as he would have liked. But the coolest kid was gone.
Katie Yeoman is Alan's sister.
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