A 29-year-old man with strong ties to Guelph was found dead in Portugal on Sunday, three days after he was seen going beneath the waves while swimming.
Aleksei Vanhee, who was born in Fergus and later attended the University of Guelph, had started making a new life for himself in Europe just over a year ago, said his father Josh Vanhee by phone on Monday.
“He was following his heart to Europe,” said Josh.
Aleksei first went to France before spending some time in Belgium, but Josh said it was the move to the southern part of Portugal where he decided to stay for the long term.
“He really started to enjoy himself. He was still doing a number of jobs but he was starting to put together a circle of friends,” said Josh.
He said his son had also recently begun to get serious about the sport of rock climbing on the cliffs in Portugal.
Aleksei was swimming with friends at Praia das Furnas beach in southern Portugal when he and another swimmer were swept into a rocky area.
“He would often go and swim in the sea, he would do it almost every weekend. I think it was rougher than it normally was,” said Josh. “His friends believe he was thrown against rocks because he was so strong that he must have been knocked unconscious.”
Aleksei's parents and sister all live in Guelph.
Josh said Aleksei’s friends were the first to contact the family after Aleksei had been missing for three hours. Over the next two days, emergency services in Portugal searched by boat and helicopter until contacting his dad and his mom Carmen were contacted Sunday with news that Aleksei’s body had been found.
Josh said the news came as a shock, but he is buoyed by the fact his son was as happy as he had ever been.
“It’s easy to tell ourself because he left messages and left videos — he was having the time of his life,” said Josh. “He died at a real high point in his life. He was a very vibrant kind of person, very charming and outgoing. That’s why it’s a shock for many people.”
For three years prior to leaving for Europe, Aleksei lived with his parents in Eden Mills while attending the U of G.
During that time, Aleksei worked with Robin Aggus of Robin Aggus Landscapes.
Aggus said he and Aleksei formed a friendship over the three years they worked together and kept in touch after the move to Europe.
“He just seemed to be having the time of his life in Portugal and met some good people,” said Aggus.
Aleksei was an athlete and an extremely hard worker, said Aggus.
“He would run with a full wheelbarrow load with whatever I put in it,” said Aggus.
Aside from a person who is physically fit, Aggus remembers Aleksei as being an avid reader and a poet.
“He was a real thinker and a pragmatic thinker, he wasn’t set in his ways. He was analytical and read a variety of opinions,” said Aggus.
Josh described his son as an extrovert with a philosophical slant.
“We always said if you leave him be he will end up a guru somewhere,” said Josh.
Aleksei was always compassionate and charismatic, said his father.
“You would go to the liquor store and there was a street musician sitting there, he would never go away without sitting down with them and having a chat. That’s the kind of person he was,” said Josh.
He said his son also had a soft spot for dogs and was known to take care of strays.
“He was very much in touch with nature,” said Josh of his son. “He was very much a nature fan and in four out of five pictures we would get from him would be landscapes, the beach and stray dogs, which he would always make friends with.”
Aleksei had many friends across Europe, in part because he spent time in a school in Russia that had many international students. Back in Canada, he attended Glenforest Secondary School in Mississauga.
Josh said Portugal is where his son’s love of physical activity and English lit background really came together.
“In Portugal he seemed to have really found it all, both the friends that linked in with him and what he believed and at the same time he was a great sports fanatic,” said Josh.
A vigil was being planned for Monday on the beach where Aleksei went missing.
Making arrangement for his son are complicated by COVID-19 restrictions, said Josh, but he also isn’t sure Aleksei would want want to be ‘tied down’ with a funeral and burial.
“He’s back with nature. He wouldn’t want us to come and simply look at something and just to go over for that,” said Josh. “To put a grave stone for him would be like putting a stone on his head — it’s the last thing he would have wanted.
“He made a lot of friends and they have basically taken over there,” said Josh. “We decided we are going to be a part of what his friends are doing from a distance and we are going to redo that when we can go with more celebration in our hearts.”
