I joined my regular walking group at Dunbar and 41st. I arrived somewhat early and decided to look in the neighbourhood at the house where Moses once lived. I was not too sure about the street, but will certainly remember the house located on its corner.
No, it wasn't the man with the beard who carried two tablets and parted the Red Sea but my late husband Peter grandfather. He lived on the corner of Dunbar and 35th, just a short hike up the hill from where the bus dropped me off. When I reached the property, I found only rubble and a bulldozer parked at the spot where once the house stood.
The remnants of Moses’s garden and house, flattened, to make room for the new.
Seeing this made me realize that we only get to use the space for a short time; whether you own it or rent it. Reminiscent of the Dutch graveyards, a country so over populated, where one is entitled to rent the gravesite for a limited time. After the expiry date, like the house, it gets flattened waiting for a new resident.
Margaret, my mother-in-law, told me that Moses had wanted a cremation, but my father-in-law Jack couldn’t handle that thought and had him placed in a mausoleum instead. The location undisclosed as Jack, overwhelmed in grief, forgot where he placed him. There were no visits to the site, no rocks placed, nor flowers and his whereabouts remained unknown.
Moses had no longer followed the Jewish faith, and neither did his two sons. He then donated his slightly used family Torah to the synagogue on Oak Street and I am almost sure that he is not laying in the company of others of the previous faith.
So I got curious to where in the world could Moses be?
During my walks with the walking group, we have passed through many cemeteries in Vancouver and Burnaby and I kept an eye open for any mausoleum with MOSES on it, or at lease a hint so that I can return on my own at a slower place. No miracles, not even a small hint appeared so I decided to start my search on the internet. Low and behold I found the death certificate on-line and it provided a photo on the originally typed entry. It gave all the details including the cause of death, cemetery and address of its location.
The next day was a perfectly sunny day in Vancouver and decided to take the bus to the location. The Office at the cemetery had to find and dust off, their old books of 1961 and gave me the precise location of Moses.
I found him in the Abbey Mausoleum with its stained glass windows, a very short distance from the office.
The cemetery must have been new at the time because I found him in the first row. A for Amerillus, and next to the stained glass window depicting Amerillus, where he has been since his departure in 1961.
I came looking
and I found you.
and I found you.
May you continue to
rest in peace.
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