Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
This is a follow-up to a recent post, “The Nun and the Girl Who Went to Prison”. If you missed it, click here for a recap.
Moose Jaw had a lot of snow this winter; Rosedale Cemetery was still under a foot of it when I went looking for Ethel Phillipson’s grave yesterday. The Phillipson family marker was in a clearing, but I couldn’t see Ethel’s grave. I had a spade in the truck (intending to use it to dig up treasure, but that is another story), so I wandered to the area where I roughly knew Ethel to be and started moving snow.
There is no way to dig in a graveyard, without feeling conspicuous.
I looked over my shoulder often, hoping I wouldn’t be discovered. There was a worker in a service vehicle at the far end of the cemetery, but he seemed not to notice my early-morning, grave-digging activities.
We live in an age where cemeteries have websites. Ethel’s tombstone was precisely where the on-line map said it would be. I shovelled it free of snow but there was a solid layer of ice over the stone. I used a jack knife to clear that layer.
Once the gravestone was clear, I put my tools back in the truck and exchanged them for some flowers I had purchased at Safeway. I returned to the grave looking more like a conventional mourner.
Grocery store tulips on Ethel Phillipson’s grave; probably the first flowers she has had in a very long time.
As I stood at her grave, I contemplated what little I know about Ethel. She died before I was born but I have become very fond of this person.
Ethel is …
… the most interesting person I never met.
Ethel’s story is appended to this post. It is longer than my usual scribbles and the narrative may have narrower appeal than other topics, but I hope you will take time to read it. If you have an interest in Ethel’s story, click the link below.
If you have trouble opening the attachment, please send me an e-mail and I will get my IT Department on it.
russ.paton@icloud.com
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