Enza Lucifero’s father, Saverio, died on Jan. 14. He was 87.
She describes him as a extremely religious man who needed to be buried within the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, on the slopes of Mount Royal, the symbolic centre of the town the place he lived most of his life.
But it surely took eight months to put him to relaxation there, a consequence of a drawn-out labour dispute between the cemetery’s staff and the non-profit that runs it.
On Tuesday, Enza and her household lastly buried him. It was an emotional expertise, she mentioned, and one which reopened outdated wounds.
“I’m comfortable for him,” Enza mentioned of her father, “as a result of lastly he’s the place he needed to be and the sense of aid I really feel is large.”
Now that the labour dispute has — largely — ended, households are laying their family members to relaxation on the cemetery once more.
However there stays a backlog of our bodies in storage that might not be put within the floor for months and the ceremony for Enza’s father was clouded by reminders that this was not a standard burial.
That they had a strict schedule and, as they drove by way of the positioning to the plot the place Saverio’s casket lay, they seen towering shrubs, overgrown useless grass and branches strewn throughout the lawns.
The cemetery’s grounds employees are again on the job, however the mess that piled up in the course of the strike, together with the particles from a spring ice storm, will take months to wash, Enza figures.
“The cemetery has misplaced its glory,” she mentioned. “The grass is burned. It would take years for that grass to develop again and to be lovely. There have been no flowers wherever.”
On the gravesite, a casket lay able to be interred. Inside was Enza’s father. However the eight months that had handed since his loss of life had disconnected her from the fact of his passing. It’s a painful factor to lose a beloved one, Enza mentioned, and extra painful nonetheless to need to grieve their passing twice.
That was what she and her household, together with her mom, Saverio’s spouse, needed to do, she mentioned.
The passing of time had additionally sowed some confusion for Enza. In January, the household picked out a casket for Saverio. Now, that very same casket was in entrance of Enza, however was it actually the identical one? Was this her father? Or had some mistake been made? She couldn’t visualize him inside.
The confusion, which was cleared up due to an identification tag, added to the strangeness of the affair.
A kindly priest introduced dignity again to the proceedings, she mentioned, and made her assume how comfortable she was to lastly have the stress of her father’s burial lifted from her shoulders. Now, she thought, he’s lastly at relaxation within the spot the place he needed to be, not removed from Beaver Lake, the place he introduced her when she was a baby.
When the priest completed the ceremony and the casket was lowered into the bottom, just one element remained incomplete: the engraving for the date of loss of life on her father’s tombstone. It may well’t be completed as a result of such engravings are normally dealt with by the cemetery’s workplace employees and they’re nonetheless placing.
Some households, nonetheless, are nonetheless ready for a time slot to bury their family members — and it might not come for months, such is the extent of the backlog.
Michel St-Amour, a spokesperson for the cemetery and a board member for the Fabrique de la paroisse Notre-Dame, the non-profit that manages it, says the tempo of burials will improve within the coming weeks as the staff clear up the grounds.
Hopefully, he mentioned, the backlog of 300 our bodies nonetheless to be buried shall be cleared by December. The cemetery is about to open to the general public on Sept. 11 and by then, the grounds ought to be largely cleaned up apart from some areas the place harm is extra intensive, St-Amour mentioned.
“Our households had been very affected person,” he added, “they’re telling us they’re comfortable they’re being referred to as again and a few of them have already got a date [for a burial].”
Jimmy Koliakoudakis, who buried his mom on the cemetery on Wednesday after a protracted wait, mentioned the postponement was one thing no different household ought to need to undergo.
“It ought to be an important service,” he mentioned. “When somebody passes away the best factor to do is simply proceed with the burial.”
Koliakoudakis mentioned that, like Enza, he felt aid when he was lastly capable of bury his mom subsequent to her husband, the place she needed to be.
“Now they’re collectively eternally,” he mentioned. “She’s at relaxation now, the place she ought to be.”