King Solomon wrote long ago: “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better” (Ecclesiastes 7:1-3).
“It’s a sad day,” I said to myself as my first conscience thought. Today, a couple of us from Wolfe Flooring will attend the funeral of Sidney Defour. It was immediately apparent upon meeting Sidney several years ago that he was a man of rare experience—a top-caliber flooring business owner. A limited number of carpet installers perform with excellence on high-end residential projects, but only a handful of flooring professionals can orchestrate the most complex commercial installations like Sidney. He loved working with the finest woven carpets from mills such as Desso. Sidney enjoyed exercising his talent against challenging projects proving his reputation. While some are overwhelmed with 1,000-square yard renovations, Sidney was accustom to 50,000-square yard carpet installations for airports and metropolitan convention centers. Beyond commercial installs, we knew Sidney as a man of his word. It was common that Sidney would speak of his horses or show us pictures of his wife and young daughter. We will miss our friend and one of the best of our industry: Sidney Defour (1960 – 2010).