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October 18, 2002
Unidentified body in plot
Isaac Goslin wants answers about burial from the cemetery board.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
There are few more difficult aspects of life than the trauma of
losing a mother or father. In the Jewish tradition, the healing
process begins only a few days after death when the funeral service
and burial ceremony take place.
Imagine how much more difficult the process would be if, the morning
of the funeral, the funeral director called to tell you your mother
couldn't be buried next to her husband because, during preparation,
cemetery staff discovered someone else's body already buried in
her plot.
That was the basis of the story Isaac Goslin told the Bulletin
after his family's experience burying his mother-in-law at the Schara
Tzedeck cemetery this summer.
What has made matters worse for Goslin's family, he felt, was the
lack of information he believed he had been offered from the cemetery's
board of directors.
This is Goslin's story as he recounted it to the Bulletin.
The burial plot was not empty
More than 24 years ago, after Goslin's father-in-law, Harry Toft,
passed away, the Goslin family purchased the plot next to Harry's
so that Harry's wife, Clara, could have her wish of one day being
buried next to her husband.
When Clara passed away June 10, 2002, family members from the United
States and Israel flew to Vancouver for a June 12 funeral at the
Schara Tzedeck cemetery.
According to Goslin, at approximately 9 a.m. the morning of the
funeral, he received a call from one of the cemetery's current funeral
directors, Rev. Joseph Marciano, who explained that Clara's body
could not be buried in the plot next to her husband. Marciano reportedly
told Goslin that another casket, for which they had no record, was
found in the plot as cemetery workers were preparing for the funeral.
At the suggestion of Temple Sholom's Rabbi Philip Bregman, who officiated
the ceremony, and out of respect for the dead, Clara's body was
buried June 12 in an empty plot, away from her husband.
Goslin said his family was told that the unknown casket would eventually
be moved and the cemetery would hold another ceremony to place Clara's
casket in the appropriate plot. At that point, most family members
chose to stay in Vancouver in anticipation of the situation being
resolved.
However, two weeks later, Goslin said he was advised that the cemetery
had not yet identified the body in the casket and, therefore, could
not remove it. Feeling they were left with no other choice, a decision
was reluctantly accepted by Goslin's family to have the father-in-law
moved instead.
"God forbid, this should happen to anyone else," Goslin
explained emotionally. "They took my father-in-law out of his
grave and buried him next to my mother-in-law. He had been lying
there for 24 years and they took him out and put him in another
coffin because after 24 years the casket was all disintegrated."
Goslin wrote a letter to the cemetery board demanding an explanation
which, he said, was not answered. After added confusion and debate,
the cemetery did eventually waive the $10,000 funeral fee for Goslin's
family.
Several months later, the board sent Goslin a letter inviting him
to an Oct. 7, 2002, meeting of the cemetery board, where he was
told his concerns would be discussed.
However, on the afternoon of Oct. 7, Goslin explained, his wife
received a call from the cemetery informing them that his invitation
to meet with the board had been postponed to their December meeting.
As of the Bulletin's press time, Goslin reported that his
family had not yet been offered any explanation as to who was buried
in the plot they paid for 24 years ago, and what circumstances ultimately
led to the family having to re-bury their father.
Cemetery board not responding
Goslin said that Marciano once informed him that this was not the
first time something like this had happened at the cemetery in the
last few years.
"The first time it happens is a shock to anyone," Goslin
accepted. "But when it happens two or three times [the board]
should know how to deal with the grieved family."
Goslin said he felt the board should have respected his family's
plight by calling an emergency meeting to discuss the issue right
away.
"People had come from overseas for God's sake. She wanted to
be buried next to her husband," said Goslin.
Other complainants to the cemetery with similar circumstances to
discuss have come forward to the Bulletin but have asked
to keep their names anonymous. Goslin did not.
"[They want me] just to keep quiet like it will go away,"
he claimed. "This is not going to go away. They're not going
to keep me shut."
When the Bulletin first attempted to contact a representative
of the cemetery, board co-chair Jack Kowarsky immediately claimed
there was nothing to discuss, then hung up the phone on the reporter
before any questions could be asked.
Several weeks of continuous attempts to reach members of the board
to discuss how these situations would be handled, or the potential
for yet-to-be-discovered cases, were not successful.
Police discover a body
Cemetery concerns were first brought to the Bulletin's attention
in February 2001, when New Westminster police began to investigate
the discovery of a then unknown body buried in an undeveloped part
of the cemetery property.
According to Staff Sgt. Casey Dehaas, the body was that of a man
who had died of natural causes in an old age home in Vancouver.
Though he wouldn't release any names, Dehaas explained that the
funeral director of the Schara Tzedeck cemetery at the time also
operated a body removal company that had a contract with the B.C.
Coroners Service.
Dehaas said that, after several months of waiting, no next of kin
from the deceased's family had stepped forward to offer any direction
for the care of the body. According to Dehaas, the police investigated
the possibility that the funeral director eventually chose to dispose
of the body by burying it on Schara Tzedeck cemetery property. Dehaas
explained that the investigation had ended and that Crown council
did not lay any charges because there was no criminal act involved.
In a case like Goslin's, where an unidentified casket is discovered
in a pre-reserved plot, Dehaas said the police would only become
involved if a complaint that the cemetery had defrauded someone
was filed.
"If it's just bad book keeping then that's not of a criminal
nature," he clarified.
Cases like Goslin's and the police investigation have raised a lot
of questions about past and present operations of the Schara Tzedeck
cemetery. So far the cemetery board has chosen not to provide any
answer to those questions to the Jewish community via the Bulletin.
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