Canadian Expat Oscar Sanchez Dies of Natural Causes in Sihanoukville Bathroom

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Canadian Expat Oscar Sanchez Dies of Natural Causes in Sihanoukville Bathroom

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Sihanoukville: 65 year old French-Canadian Oscar Sanchez was found dead in the bathroom of his rented apartment.

According to local reporter Huy Bunleng, he died from natural causes (swollen feet?).

Oscar Sanchez was born on February 2, 1951 in Montluçon, France, and lived in Montreal, Quebec. According to his Facebook page, he was the former director of Theatre Program at Portage and studied at Concordia University in Montreal.

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Other recent stories of foreigners dying in Cambodia:
Austrian Tourist Andreas Paulic Dies From Drug Overdose in Sihanoukville
American Robert Draper Dies in Cambodia of a Stroke After Racking Up a $3,000 Medical at Calmette Hospital
A French Man Found Death at Home Town Hotel in Phnom Penh
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General Mackevili
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Re: Canadian Expat Oscar Sanchez Dies of Natural Causes in Sihanoukville Bathroom

Post by General Mackevili »

Some kind words about Oscar Sanchez on Facebook:

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"I was in shock for few days and could not believe my unforgettable friend Oscar is actually gone. We met in Vancouver at the Latin Quoters restaurant 23 years ago. We went out for a year and then kept seeing each other as friends. He gave me a Mexican hat that I wore for 20 years. Oscar went back to Portage and from there to Cambodia. We kept in touch trough Skype and Facebook. He is one of this people you meet once in a life time and want to know how their life is going. He sure was unforgettable man and a friend. God bless you Oscar. Rest in peace. You will be forever in my heart. Love you siempre. Penka Dimova"



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"Every so often we will read in the newspaper that a comet is entering our solar system. Comets have eccentric elliptical orbits. We know they are there but we don’t see them very often.

Oscar was like a comet in my life. We met a lifetime ago at a party in Montreal. He was young, beautiful, full of energy (and a few other things, I’m sure) with long curls, sharp eyes and a huge white furry hat. I was enraptured. He read me excerpts from Alistair Crowley’s Book of Lies until I fell asleep on his mattress in his room at the foot of Mont Royal. He had a motorcycle. We went to Toronto together. That’s where I lived. Then he disappeared.

One day, 20 years later, my friend Greg said, “You won’t believe who I saw the other day”. I knew somehow, “Oh my god, Oscar’s back”. He left his phone number in case I wanted to hear from him. Oscar thought it would be awkward for him to call me. Would he say, “Hi, I’m back...”? By this time I was raising a daughter and had obligations that tied me down but he was still that wild and free beautiful man who went out for cigarettes 20 years ago. He was living in Vancouver working on his drumming and counseling street youth. I went to see him. There was always something about him that set him apart; his style, his romance with mirrors, his indescribable energy. Again, I was enraptured.

I feel like this sighting was predetermined in a way. Shortly after reconnecting with Oscar I needed him and he was there. He was, as usual, generous with his time and his counsel. His words were wise. He was a lovely man. He came to Calgary to help my daughter deal with a very traumatic event. Oscar always put style first, ..dressed for Vancouver, but out in the cold Alberta nights. He was a non conformist even though he was freezing. I remember sitting in a neighbourhood bar in downtown Calgary (the whitest and straightest place on earth) with him. He failed to fit into the landscape. I will always love and honour him for staying true to himself..

The other event involved the suicide of my 19 year old nephew in Vancouver. My sister-in-law and I were broken. Oscar’s gentle ways and wise words helped us to heal. Then, he was gone again, out of our orbit.

Luckily for me, there now was social media. He had his adventures to experience. We remained friends on facebook. I loved the music he would post from time to time. I guess that’s what kept us connected...that and the fact that he was Oscar and I will love him forever.

Check out time arrived for you, my friend. You helped a lot of people deal. You made us smile through our tears. You made us laugh and dance. You were open and you loved us and we all loved you. Peace out.
"



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"My first meeting with Oscar was around 1987. I was working in an adolescent treatment centre in Vancouver. My work partner asked, 'so have you met the new staff member? I said no, I had not. She gave me a funny smile and said, 'well, he's quite the character'. She wouldn't elaborate but gave me another amused smile. Of course, the 'character' turned-out to be Oscar. As it turned-out, we worked well together and usually saw eye-to-eye about the way that we worked with adolescents and their families. For the next couple of years, Oscar and I shared a house in east-Vancouver, a neighbourhood that he loved. Somehow or other, I also shared a house with Tina, and then Tanya, Oscar's nieces. It was a nice time in my life. Oscar was out to a club on every night that he could do it. I was constantly amazed that he'd jam on-stage with whatever band was playing. The man played a mean harmonica and wasn't above playing percussion, congas or whatever was available. It takes some stones to go up to a band playing a gig professionally, and 'offer' to play a number with them. He often made the band that much better and they'd ask him to come back the next night. Many of those bands were names that we'd recognize. It always amazed me that he'd just jump in there. He loved that spotlight ... something that every person soon grasped when he was on a roll.

I have to say that I never met anyone else who would wear green leather pants, a purple silk shirt, armadillo boots, many silver bangles clanging away on the wrists, a jacket made from Anaconda skins that he picked-up on a travel somewhere, and not to forget the belt made from porcupine quills (yes, really) and embossed with heavy silver. And the hat. Big hat, ideally with a peacock feather. (He once came back from Central America with 100 Panama hats stuffed into a duffel bag) I told him that he looked like a pimp from Detroit. He said, 'exactly'. He liked to refer to this get-up as 'the full regalia'. I'll smile at that memory for the rest of my life. That was him to a T, larger than life, a colourful creature, beyond charismatic, whirling away on a dance floor like a creature from another planet. And, since I'm writing this, he would be annoyed if I failed to mention that he was a chick -magnet extrordinaire. The ladies loved him and he loved them back. He was sincere.

He was at least part of the inspiration that led to me travel to many places in the last 30 years. Oscar lit my fuse for travel in Central America, then Asia. He was a hippie, beach bum in Goa, India 40 years ago when not that many people were so intrepid. He got into 'a jackpot', as he called it, coming back from India in the 1970's. He had a serious problem to contend with then. He made no secret of his past but if you followed his Facebook posts over the last few years, once a year he would crypically write '35', the next year '36', then '37'. That was on his anniversary of overcoming a serious addiction, and turning his life around. He was very proud of staying away from that substance, and doing something worthwhile with his life. This led him to work with youth, and issues of addiction were his speciality. I know that he made a difference in many people's lives and that this was very important to him.

Somewhere along the line we both moved from Vancouver and were out of touch for about 15 years. I was delighted when a friend of his niece told me that Oscar wanted me to email him. How about that - he was living in Cambodia. We had an email back and forth, then a chat on the phone and I thought that it would be fun to visit him that winter, so off I went. With some friends you just pick-up where you left off, no matter how many years had passed. It was that way with Oscar. Seeing him in 2011, I laughed harder than I had laughed in years. My face actually hurt the next day. I was glad to be able to spend time with him over the next 3 winters. We had a lot of great nights out, in a place that he called his 'office'. The Cambodian family running the bar/restaurant made him a special customer - he was good for business, always trying to get some music going, always trying to get a gang of friends together for a night out. He appreciated the absurdity of the place. It was Asia and many things did not make sense to the foreign brain. He got to laugh about the many oddities of life passing by. He just loved to sit on the street and watch the world go past, with commentary.

Oscar had a keen ear for language. More than once I've seen him having 3 conversations at once, in 3 different languages, shifting seamlessly from English to French to Spanish and back again, never missing a beat. We both loved to mimic accents. He did an excellent Indian guru. James Brown, of course. A southern black preacher. Tony Montana from Scarface was a favourite. We'd mimic a Russian gangster doing a Tony Montana impression. All of it silly but it gave us a laugh. We laughed for hours that we would open the Tony Montana School of Cambodian English Pronunciation. We cackled about that one for a couple of years. Oscar was a natural comic. He'd catch my eye with a mischievous look and we'd laugh some more. For the folks who sat with him on late nights when he pulled his harmonica out, playing his heart out - that was his gift to his friends. He appreciated his friends in his own way, and that was one of them. He was good too at staying in touch, and always taking an interest in what so-and-so was up to.

He enjoyed a lot of happy days in Cambodia but he was quite nostalgic for earlier times in his life. He often wanted to talk abouy our time working with kids, or his time at Portage. He never said a bad word about anyone from the past. He was proud of his family and always had a nice word to say about them all. I'd say that he was a little bit bored at times but he was also at peace with his life. One time before I left Cambodia for Nepal, Oscar asked me to give a Buddhist prayer wheel a spin for him ... 'it can't hurt' he grinned. He added, 'uh, maybe give it a few spins, I can use all the help I can get'. He laughed. I made a point of finding a prayer wheel and did give it a few spins with Oscar in mind. I hope that those prayers carry him far. Buddhism was one of the few religions that he respected. He often referred to the time following death being 'in the bardos'. So, to our sadness, Oscar is now in the Bardos. Think your best thoughts of him now. He was a great friend and he will be sadly missed but I'm going to be laughing for the rest of my life every time that I think of him. I think he'd like that. As we know, he only wrote in capital letters for the last few years. His laptop was broken and he just shrugged when he was being accused of shouting. So I'll do it for him here in honour of his unique style. A couple of his quotes on death: HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW, YOU NEVER KNOW ... INTO THE BARDOS, OM SHANTI
Thanks for the friendship Oscar. You will be missed.

Condolences to those who feel the same, especially to Oscar's beloved family.
"





You bastards better make up some kind words to say about me when I check out!
"Life is too important to take seriously."

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

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Re: Canadian Expat Oscar Sanchez Dies of Natural Causes in Sihanoukville Bathroom

Post by ot mien kampf »

He looks like a character, and I say that in the kindest sense of the word. Interesting life, too.

I'm always saddened when they end up passing in run down dumps like this.
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Re: Canadian Expat Oscar Sanchez Dies of Natural Causes in Sihanoukville Bathroom

Post by General Mackevili »

"Mr. Sanchez worked from 1999 to 2007 to Portage, a center that offers drug rehabilitation programs.

"It was a very appreciated. He had two passions: helping young people and play music, "says Harding Seychelles, Director of Communications Portage."

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2016/0 ... u-cambodge
"Life is too important to take seriously."

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Re: Canadian Expat Oscar Sanchez Dies of Natural Causes in Sihanoukville Bathroom

Post by General Mackevili »

It also seems like his family is still trying to figure out exactly what happened surrounding his death.

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"Hello my name is Tanya Ventura, Oscar Sanchez's niece we are trying to reach someone who would have had contact with Oscar in Sihanoukville we would like any information on what might have happened. Thanks so much for reaching out to us, Om Shanti"

If anyone knows anything, try contacting his niece on Facebook.
"Life is too important to take seriously."

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

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