The Stratigopolous family was living grief all over again Monday after they were finally able to lay George Stratigopolous, months after he passed away.
The families and loved ones who walked among the tombstones on Monday, many of them wielding gardening tools as well as flowers, spoke of the importance of cemeteries as a vital piece of public life, an innate part of the grieving process. They said the opening was like a reunion with lost loved ones not just with their grave.
A group of bereaved family members gathered before the Notre-Dame-des-Neige Cemetery in Montreal Sunday to protest its ongoing closure, the result of a contentious workers strike. The strike, which began in September 2022, has shuttered the gates and postponed in-ground burials, meaning hundreds of bodies remain in cold storage as the battle between management and the CSN union continues.