Finding Walter

WINNIPEG - When Lori Jean Meixner was visiting Winnipeg as a child there was a curious conversation during a game of Canasta between her grandmother Jean and several ladies she still vividly remembers today.

They talked about a boy named Walter, a brother to her mother Lona. He was the first child of her grandparents Peter and Jean (Geneva) Kravcenko. He died on April 2, 1923 at the age of three months.

Meixner then asked her mother, "who is the other brother you had?" No details were offered. Years later in 1985 Meixner lost a two-month-old child named Joseph to SIDS, also known as crib death. Her grandmother then opened up about Walter. "Grandma told me Walter died of crib death, for no known reason, just passed away," said Meixner, now a resident of Detroit, Mich. "He was grandma's angel. She still grieved for him but she was never allowed to grieve. When he died she was told to have another baby, and that would fix it. That was what they did back then, forget that one, just have another baby. That would cure it. She told me it did not work."

That was more than 35 years ago. Jean Kravcenko has long since passed, never cured from the loss of Walter, her angel. Walter, always a lost and forgotten soul, continued to be a family secret.

FAMILY RECONNECTION

Six years ago I reconnected with my extended family members in Winnipeg. The roots of my family in Canada date back many years before at the start of the 20th century in the Brokenhead district, about 80 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. I vaguely knew my cousin Brian Lesko from family visits, and the occasional important gatherings, like funerals.

Brian is a retired electrical engineer who for many years has dedicated himself to finding every bit of information about the history of our family. From the very start, his commitment and resolve to discover the full story with the utmost accuracy has been astonishing. I immediately wanted to tag along for the ride, a journey revealing a greater understanding of the hardships early family pioneers faced. It also led to many discoveries, including the once forgotten gravesites of my great-great-grandparents.

Three years ago on a family genealogy Facebook page a startling death certificate was uploaded. It was one for Walter Krowchenko.

"At this time, everyone said ëwho could this be?' The spelling ëKrowchenko' on the death certificate differed from the true spelling of the ëKravcenko' name," said Brian, who is the first cousin to Walter. "Virtually none of the present living relatives knew of her son's existence until that Facebook posting.

"Back in those days, no one talked much about such tragedies, especially to their children. That generation seemed to feel that life must go on and didn't grieve for long," added Brian. "This initial and simple curiosity eventually turned into a burning passion to find out the truth. What happened to Walter? Where was he buried? Why did no one know about him?"

Our probe into the circumstances of Walter's brief life revealed he was conceived before Jean, then just 15 years old, and Peter were married, a scenario many families a century ago turned their backs on. The death certificate listed Peter as the father and his Winnipeg address but nothing for Jean, not even her name. We had no idea whether there was even a funeral service.

CEMETERY INVESTIGATION

In 2016 Brian and I conducted a two-day visual search through the many cemeteries on north Main Street just outside Winnipeg, an area where the final resting place is for Jean and many other relatives. Thousands of gravesites were looked at. This followed earlier searches in 2015 through all the Catholic and Orthodox cemeteries in the Gonor and Narol areas, just outside of Winnipeg where the family lived in the early 1900s. Interviews were conducted with cemetery employees. Brian had also checked out any government documents he could find but nothing turned up. We agreed to resume the search in 2017.

LUCKY BREAK

Almost a month ago during my annual visit to Winnipeg, Brian suggested we go to the Russian Orthodox churches that were nearest to the first home of Jean and Peter Kravcenko, located in an older section of Winnipeg at 532 Redwood Ave. The couple's marriage certificate had a seal that strongly indicated the union was conducted with an Orthodox ceremony. Also, a Russian priest signed the marriage certificate. However, we quickly learned from one church official that records dating back to 1923 had long been archived in Ottawa, but we were told burials were done in either of two local cemeteries, including the nearby Elmwood Cemetery. After looking at hundreds of gravesites in Elmwood Cemetery, we had reached another dead end. There was no sign of Walter.

On the way home, I recalled the name of the second suggestion, Brookside Cemetery, a municipal institution and the largest cemetery in Western Canada with more than 200,000 gravesites. It was a long shot, as it was far away from 532 Redwood Ave., particularly back in 1923, an era of fewer transportation options, especially for a poor couple like Jean and Peter Kravcenko.

Brian checked the Brookside website. It had an archive. Within five minutes he found the gravesite of Walter listed.

GRAVESITE 118

Two days later Brian and I, along with cousins Patti and Mike Leegsma, drove out to Brookside Cemetery. Through a cemetery official the day before Brian had received a map of the cemetery that directed us to where Walter was buried. We had no idea if the gravesite had a marker, only the plot number of 118.

There were many unmarked graves in and around where Walter's site was supposed to be located. It was now obvious there was no marker for his grave. The four of us brought metal poles to poke around the ground to find the three-inch diameter stone that marked gravesite 118. Within 10 minutes we discovered 128, 113, 120 and several others. And then came 118. Brian knelt to the ground and removed the sod covering the marker. Patti brought a bottle of water and Brian rinsed and cleaned the marker. The once buried disc for Walter was now glistening in the brilliant early August sun.

But there was still more, much more to do.

MORE QUESTIONS

It may seem sad, even callous, for many people to have gravesites with a numbered marker, but cemetery experts in Red Deer, Calgary and even Innisfail said it is an important way to maintain organization with all plots. While such detailed organization was not done for most private pioneer cemeteries, it's commonplace for today's advanced cemetery operations.

What was surprising, and even a bit shocking about Walter's gravesite, was that his final resting place is shared with another deceased baby, by the name of Adolph Morozowsky, who predeceased Walter by one month. There is no known relationship between the two infants, and it is likely both burials were paid for by the city, and that no marker was ever placed on the plot for either infant.

As far as doubling up or stacking at gravesites, that too was a common practice in past decades and still exists in many urban cemeteries, although it is believed Innisfail stopped doing so by the 1960s.

WALTER COMING HOME

This is not the end of the story for Walter. We are planning a consecration ceremony for Walter's gravesite next summer with the same priest that officiated his mother Jean's funeral in 2001. He deserves that. Plans are underway to have a proper granite marker for his gravesite. Several immediate direct descendants of Walter's siblings have already said they will come.

"It means to me that the gravesite of my dad's older brother has finally been found. It means to me I could have an uncle I will never know," said Gail Post, Walter's niece from Beaverton, Mich. "It also tells me that crib death can occur at any time and has nothing to do with neglect. It is called SIDS. It's sad, but a part of life."

It also means that Walter's name never again has to be whispered. Instead of lying forgotten in a shallow unmarked grave for eternity he will now be brought back in full view for his family. Jean can smile from the heavens. Her angel is finally coming home.