Weather has been not been too bad for January, really nice sunny day yesterday and a nice -11 for a low. There is a front down south hitting the larger urban areas of Ontario and Quebec; it looks to be heading into the Maritimes with same force. Our forecast is for snow and wind by Friday.
Personally Fran and I are feeling a little woebegone with one thing and another, and the community as a whole is some what dispirited as well. We have had a nice break from really sad happenings, alas a young guy of about 17 decided to end his life last week. The funeral was yesterday, very big crowd in church, lot of young people there. The lad was a good hockey player, was very popular with his peers and older people. Most sad indeed.
Added to that a lady who lived near by passed away yesterday. Mrs.Ikkusek was one incredible lady. Hard as nails, I used to be amazed at her. Well into her 60’s Mrs.Ikkusek would be out chopping wood in the coldest of days, always had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, one of the old school of Inuit.
Then a few years ago she had an accident out at her cabin, broke her hip. It was several days before people could get out to bring her in due to weather.
Mrs.Ikkusek was never the same after that incident, had to use a wheel chair to get around, one of her family had to give her constant care. A couple of strokes did not help either. Then last Sunday another stroke left her unconscious. Mrs. Ikkusek passed away in the Goose Bay hospital.
Fran will miss the odd drop in to talk in Inuktitut to her; Mrs. Ikkusek always made people laugh.
3 comments:
I am saddened by your community's loses.
Not to be crass or sound cold but what is the disposition on the remains? Are a certain number of graves opened before the ground freezes?
I don't mean to be insensitive but those were my first thoughts when reading your post.
If ya don’t ask ya don’t learn.
No pre dug graves, dug as needed. They bring in that Mexican guy, manual labor.
As you assume, hard digging in winter. Several methods have/are used. Pick n shovel, various fuels used to make a fire to melt the frozen ground. Modern times the town council gas powered jack hammer is used, I’m not sure but the graves are probably not as deep as in other places.
Male chapel servants of the Moravian Church do all the essentials for the burial.
Weather, hard digging, lack of Mexicans can delay funerals at times, but everybody is very patient.
Some times it is not known if a funeral will go ahead until a few hours before, miraculously word gets around.
One interesting aspect is that up until a decade or so ago people who took their own lives were not allowed space in the cemetery. Instead they were buried outside the cemetery boundary. I’m not sure if this was a dictate by the governing body of the church or individual ministers dictate.
Needles to say with the increase in suicides, and some local protestations one would think, a minister of the day over ruled that and ever since the cemetery is allowed.
So sorry to hear about all this. The untimely and needless death of a young person is sometimes amplified when an older person dies nearby, and there's a feeling of an old and familiar world slipping by, while everyone goes careening into the unknown future.
Not sure how the rule against church burials eventually eased, but it seems to be the case that there weren't many suicides before the modern communities got going in the 1960s. Those that did occur may have happened outside the communities on the land, or at hunting and fishing places. It was a terrible thing in Inuit society to be alone, without the closeness of one's family and friends--the opposite of happiness in life. The rule seems to have been enforced by the Elders and Minister, perhaps as an effective way of limiting anyone else who might consider it. An entry from one of the churchbooks in the 1970s tells about one man whose death was not clearly an accident or a suicide:
"Many people condemned him and would not hear of a regular Funeral, but argued that he shot himself and so should be buried outside the graveyard somewhere without ceremony. But I felt it was up to God not to us to judge."
Please tell Fran that I think the OK Society has been doing a fantastic job with coverage the last little while--top notch.
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