Want to know where to find Yukon gold ? It is in people like Grace.
I met Grace at the Gold Show in Dawson City. Grace and her husband pan for gold in a tiny town called Mayo, miles from anywhere. To get to Dawson that day they had to get past six grizzly bears recently awake from their hibernation and feeling real ornery!
Grace was telling me that her mother died last spring in her hundredth year. All those dark winters at 40 below hadn't seemed to harm the old lady. They buried her on a mountain overlooking their cabin so she could keep an eye on things.
The bishop of the arctic did the ceremony.
When I spoke to the Bishop later that day I asked him whether he remembered doing the funeral of grace's mother.
"Never forget it." he replied. "First of all I had to travel thirty miles
on a snow covered track. When I got to the Tyreman place I asked where the body was. 'Oh she's up on the mountain.' came the reply."
"So," says the Bishop "They loaded me on an ATV and hauled me up the mountain in a snow storm. I was so cold when I got there I felt that I would have been warmer in the grave."
Then, he added: "I guess that's all part of been part of being Bishop of the Arctic, but it sure would have been easier if they had buried her in the back field."
Jubilate.
Ian
No comments:
Post a Comment