The burial is my grandfather, Paul Gerk, who died June 3, 1954 at the age of 52.
The lonely figure standing there is my grandfather's best friend, Georg Stremel. Standing in an honour guard position, as both of the men were with the Knights of Columbus.
Georg Stremel was also from Josefstal, a little village near the Volga River, in Russia. Both the Stremel family, and my grandfather, escaped Russia at the same time, and even ended up in the same refugee camp in Frankfurt/Oder in Germany.
Both Georg Stremel and Paul Gerk will arrive in Canada at the same time, in April of 1924. Georg will write my grandfather and tell him to move from Saskatchewan to the Kelowna/Rutland area. In 1929 Paul Gerk, wife Elisabeth and their 2 children will do just that.
The Stremel and Gerk families would remain close all their lives. They had been through war, revolution, civil war, famine and escape, all together.
Best friends forever.
