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“I liked all of it, but I had to slow down. I’m not 60 any more. It’s about time.”

So it took the hand of ill health to finally slow him down in his alleged retirement, Élise often telling me that it was only with mixed success that she put her foot down or tried to get her husband to say no.

For more than six decades, Élise shared Jean with the public. She wasn’t going to change that, nor did she try.

In recent years, Béliveau expressed regret that he no longer was able to answer every piece of fan mail he received.

“I just don’t have the strength,” he said apologetically at Christmas in 2012, recovering at home following his second stroke.

“I’ve always thought, if somebody takes the time to get in touch, to try to reach me with a card, then I should at least thank them, acknowledge that I received their good wishes. …

“I read every one that comes to me. I only wish that I could let these people know that I’ve received their cards and wishes.”

Dramatically slowed by the challenges he was facing, Jean Béliveau never publicly dwelled on his health. Instead, he chose to count his blessings of being wrapped by the love of family and friends, gazing out from his South Shore highrise condo windows at the city that was his adopted home for more than 60 years.

Two years ago, after he was stricken by his second stroke, I was invited by Élise to join herself and her husband for a visit in the Montreal General, a uniformed guard at the door to keep well-wishers at bay.

I asked Béliveau that day whether the guard was posted to keep him from bolting for the exit, his patience wearing thin.

“No, no,” he joked. “I’m in no hurry.”

Five months later, back home on his 81st birthday, he considered everything and came up with only the positives.

“I have no complaints, even if I’ve had a few too many battles in recent years,” Béliveau said. “I’m a very fortunate guy, blessed with my health. Because I should be gone.”

In his autobiography published 20 years ago, the radiant star of hockey’s golden era wrote of how he wished to be remembered:

“Everything I achieved throughout my career, and all the rewards that followed, came as the results of team effort. If they say anything about me when I’m gone, let them say that I was a team man. To me, there is no higher compliment.”

dstubbs@montrealgazette.com

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