Article contentThat’s where the hat comes in.Article content A new mural on Creighton Street of Graham Prevost by Ontario-based artist Blazeworks on Friday. Photo by Ryan Taplin /The Chronicle HeraldArticle contentInkersell said he knew he had to wear a helmet and he wanted to protect himself from the sun, so he put an old straw hat and a hard hat together.Article content“So that was the hat that he wore, and he wore it proudly,” she said. “He made the hat. . . . He’s a very down-to-earth man. He just wore overalls and that hat. Is what he made, and that’s what he wore.”Article content Graham Prevost in this undated family photo. Photo by Jeannine (Prevost) InkersellArticle contentNeeds more spiderwebsArticle contentInkersell gave Burns several family photos of her uncle for the mural. Burns said he constructed a similar hat, and the folks at Applehead Studio took some photos of him wearing it. The photos helped Blazeworks visualize it because they didn’t have any photos of Prevost wearing the hat.Article content“That’s how I remember Graham, you know, cruising around, just like the gentlest, nicest person to talk to, always on his bike, always wearing that hat,” Burns said.Article contentWhile researching for the mural, he said he would ask people in the neighbourhood if the pictures were close.Article contentArticle content“They would laugh and say, ‘You know, well, he used to have a spider web that was on the hat, too,’ because that’s how slow he moved.”Article contentPrevost never drove a car and had no problem transporting lumber on his bike on his way to fix up one of his properties.Article content A new mural on Creighton Street of Graham Prevost by Ontario-based artist Blazeworks on Friday. Photo by Ryan Taplin /The Chronicle HeraldArticle content“He didn’t care that he had a long piece of wood on his bike. He had a ladder on his bike. He just went from point A to point B on that bike. So everybody noticed him,” she said.Article content“But if somebody was doing work on their house, he would go up and offer to help them. And if they didn’t know what they were doing, like young Black men in the community, he would offer his help and go up the ladder and help anybody. He was very kind, humble, proud, hard-working, you name it.”Article contentInstantly criedArticle contentWhen she laid eyes on the finished product, Inkersell said, she cried.Article content“I’m not a baby. I’m not a bawler, I don’t cry. I’m a pretty tough, stern woman but it brought tears to my eyes instantly.”Article contentArticle content“Everybody shed a tear when they saw it. That’s how brilliantly this artist captured my uncle,” she said. “I was like, ‘Wow, the community won’t ever forget my uncle Graham.’”Article contentArticle content“And then everybody started commenting on what a beautiful person he was. . . . I realized these people love my uncle.”Article contentPeople don’t forgetArticle contentThere are so many stories posted on Facebook about the man who has been gone from this earth for 12 years.Article content“I remember working on a roof on Creighton Street more than 40 years ago. Had rotten boss who (wanted) to take a chimney down, five Black men being yelled at,” wrote one person.Article content“We didn’t have a clue as to how to do it. Mr. Prevost was riding by on his bike, stopped, asked why (the) boss man was yelling at us, put him in check with some polite but stern words, got on the roof, showed us guys how it was to be done. . . . He was an incredible, beautiful person.”
He was a beautiful man: North-end Halifax mural honours beloved community fixture
