Excerpt
The funeral home personnel took care of the dirty work
of shoveling the soil over and sealing the plot. A sign with the
late priest’s name was placed on top until the official headstone
would be brought to the school and at that time they would place
it where it belonged.
It was a graciously looking day with a few scattered clouds
which created the oscillating mood of sunny and bright emotions
to melancholy and somber sensations suitable for a funeral. Anton
and Dylan attended the funeral as did all Residential School personnel.
After the ceremony Anton stepped around the grounds
looking at the plots and reading the names of the dead people;
he was always attracted to the numbers of a dead person’s life and
he quickly calculated in his mind the year of birth and death of
the person to see how old or young they had died. At one point
he came across a cross signifying burial site but there was no
name or any sign relating to the dead person buried in the plot.
He walked to Dylan and asked him.
“There is a burial plot without any name; do you know
who was buried there?”
Dylan walked with Anton to the burial site and upon
seeing it he remarked:
“This was a mass grave, for the children who died
during the virus epidemic ten years ago; remember George
referred to it the other day?”
“Ah, yes, but how many children died that time Dylan?”
“I don’t think anyone knows the exact number, son. However
there were at least one hundred deaths; we buried them in
bunches, it was hell, I tell you, the priests and all other personnel
were overwhelmed with the deaths which occurred on a daily
basis and no records were kept, detailed or accurate records, I
mean.”
Manolis Aligizakis 