November 21, 1990

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- Calendar Section stars on
Page a2.

LIVE BETTER ELECTRONICALLY:
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THE BUSINESS OF DYING

By LYONEL DOHERTY
This Week Staff

here’s something serene
about the place, but you
don’t know what it is. It
engulfs you the very mo-
ment you enter the front room.
There’s a feeling of warmth and
security. You can hear a pin drop
in this overwhelming calm.

You know where you are. You saw
the sign above the door. Yet no
thoughts of morbidity enter your
mind — even though you realize
many have mourned here.

Welcome to a funeral home, a place
where people don’t generally want to
be. But it’s a place that brings mean-
ing to the mystery of death by sup-
porting a normal return to ovenyay
life for the grieving.

A funeral is not only for the dead, it
is for those who live on. The expres-
sion of natural feelings of loss and
loneliness are encouraged so they do
not manifest themselves later in an
unhealthy way.

Funeral director Len Gallo said
there’s no occupation he’d rather
have than arranging funerals for
people.

“You can find a great sense of ac-
complishment in helping families,”
he noted.

Gallo operates Haywards Thomson
and Irving Funeral Chapel, a family
business in Victoria since 1867. It is
one of the few independent opera-
tions left on Vancouver Island.

Funeral directors like Gallo and
David McCall of McCall Funeral
Directors Ltd., are a disappearing
breed. They have managed to stay
locally owned in the wake of
numerous corporate takeovers in
B.C.

Large conglomerates wanting a big-
ger piece of the funeral business have
bought up the majority of inde-
pendents on the Island. But despite
dwindling numbers, Gallo and Mc-

Call carry on. Continued on Page 3

AN ANGEL TOWERS above a tombstone in the Ross Bay Cemetery. Large
Tombstones, popular in the past, are being replaced by more modest

headstones or plaques.
Photo by CHUCK RUSSELL

EE BULLS

~_IN PARADISE

_ CALENDAR: Let This Week
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By PAUL  LeMAyY
This Weer Coniribuior

he pit bull terrier —

maligned friend or

unpredictable

loller? News stories
around the country would
ead one to believe the pit
‘bull is a breed notorious for
unprovoked attacks on in-
nocent bystanders.

Late this summer, | had ary
ewn close encounter of fhe
canine kind, Driving west along
McKenzie Avenue from the
University of Victoria, | saw a
cyclist swerve into trattic to
avert the lunge of @ viciously

barking dog. In her attempt ta

avoid being bitten, she came
within inches of beine run down
by a car

Continued on Page 7

e fucker
ee EAA

AN AMERICAN PIT BULLE Termier Carel
CaIenes a Tisbes thrown by her o

Burley ef BK Canine Academy,
_ Bacto by CHUCKS RUSSELL