A THIRD LIFE

Pearl Ann told us a story about a man named Private
Samuel Laboucan from Elk Point Alberta who died twice and was buried twice. His first death occurred at Ypres, in Belgium, when the Germans gassed the soldiers in the trenches. His second death occurred in Wainwright Alberta in 1934. The second death was followed closely by the first burial, in a section of a Wainwright cemetery where the locals would bury the town drunk. The first death was followed by a hero’s celebration back home in Elk Point. He knew nothing of the celebration. He had forgotten his name, and his official identity had found its way home without him. Loathed as a deserter, the nameless man dug graves for the bodies that blotted the landscape of war.
Nobody wanted Samuel Laboucan by the time he remembered his name and returned to Elk point. Those who knew him had grieved and moved on. He had shrunk to a picture of disgust, unrecognizable as the celebrated soldier. Drunk and dishevelled, he wandered alone.
His second burial occurred when the Canadian Legion recognized him as one of their own and moved his grave to a place of honour. He is one of the heroes who will be brought back to life in dramatic presentations in the pageantry of Wainwright’s 100th anniversary. Pearl Ann cried when she told us the story, a belated tribute of grief in a storytelling circle for a man who died before she was born.
His third life, a great wrong put to right, better late than never.