Old jobs

Peoples Food Market was an important place in Kelowna for years.  I remember going with my parents here, and waiting in the car while they shopped.

One of my first jobs after high school was working here.  I worked from 1978 to 1981....3 years.  The last 2 of those years I worked grave-yard shift, from 11:30 pm to 7:30 am.  At the end, I pretty much could no longer sleep during the day.

I made some good friendships during that time and learned a lot.

This old photograph was courtesy of the "Old Kelowna" Facebook page.

Peoples Food Market was located on the corner of Glenmore Road and Bernard Avenue.

Interesting Books on the shelf....

One of the "interesting" books I consulted during my initial search for missing family, was this little atlas, published in the USSR, in Moscow, in 1977.

Soviet Road Maps were notorious for being misleading, or inaccurate.  I searched the pages of this, looking, in vain, for our little village, about 200 km north of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad).

Notwithstanding, as we filled in the missing pieces of family that had disappeared and where they lived then, it was a valuable help in seeing where they all went...spread throughout the vast lands of Siberia throughout the years.

I was even able to use some of it on my own travels in the former USSR.

A mystery.....solved at last?

Stories abounded when I would visit my grandmother.  One of those stories was that my great-grandfather, Georg Gerk, left Russia around the time of the Russo-Japanese War to escape being drafted.

Strange, since he was not a young man in those days....but Russian officials decided to draft older men who had already served their military duty.  It left farms without the head of the family to run them.  Many men left Russia so they would not have to serve.

My great grandfather traveled to Argentina to be with his older brother, also named Georg, and his family.  He would later return to Russia, eventually retire and die in 1924.

When my grandfather escaped Russia, he searched for his uncle and family...with probably hopes he could travel to Argentina.

He's actually listed in this Volga German publication from 1923, Number 34, looking for Georg Gerk.

We dont actually know if he ever heard from his, or the family.  We do know he would try to travel to the USA, and unable to do that, would travel to Canada as a refugee.

Meanwhile, for some years I have tried to research what happened to this line of the Gerk's.  Interesting.  As time wears on, and records become available online, I have been able to trace some of their movement in Argentina.  One of my grandfather's cousins, Elena Gerk, married Johannes Kloster in April of 1903 in Puán, Argentina.  Johannes would die in 1918 in Crespo....and then Elena will marry Peter Alois Gerk in 1919 also in Crespo.  Peter Alois Gerk was a widower, also from Josefstal, but only a distant relative.

So what happened to them?  Through the years I've been in touch with some descendants,  but they said they knew nothing of their history.

This past week some more pieces of the puzzle arrived.  Some contact with some of the great-grandchildren of Johannes and Elena (Gerk) Kloster. 

So far we know this: Elena Gerk died about 1959 in the State of Santa Fe.  It is believed that her parents also died there, Johann Georg and Margareta Haberkorn.  Folks are now working on getting confirmation and possible photos of graves.

In the meantime, they found a photograph of Elena and her husband, Peter Alois Gerk, and children.  Dates are not known...but at last we have something...and additional clues!

More later....it's been many years of searching....but we are close to closing this file on this line of the family!

A lesson I learned from my Dad

"Lying in a hospice bed, in the very last situation he would have chosen for himself, my father taught me that to die with dignity means to accept what God has given you and deal with it till the end. It means to play the hand God has dealt you, no matter how bad a hand it is, without folding. It means actually to live as if the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, and in either case blessed be the name of the Lord."

-David Mills, Real Death, Real Dignity: First Things, March 2011

 This older article aligns itself perfectly with the lesson I learned from my own Dad.

My Dad was a quiet man...he let his life teach us kids the lessons of life.

When he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, once again, he let his way of doing things lead us by example.

The complete article is found here.

There you will find the valuable lessons the writer learned while watching his own father die.

The same lessons I learned from my Dad...well, "learned" also means I will apply them.  But will I?  I have the map....I will, when the time comes, have to make sure, or, at least, try to follow it.

But the lessons this amazing man taught me remain.