“No Ordinary Case” – The Reburial of Tom Thomson
“As I said before this was no ordinary case.” That was the reply by R.H. Flavelle, undertaker, in a letter to my brother-in-law, Tom Harkness to justify the extra costs of embalming fluid and carrying the casket a mile-and-a-half through the woods to the cemetery.
Indeed, for six days, from July 16th to July 21st, 1917 it was anything but ordinary – it was a litany of errors and a series of ill-advised actions that made the tragedy far worse than it already was.
My body, as most believe, was recovered from Canoe Lake on July 16, 1917. I mysteriously disappeared eight days earlier on July 8th, 1917. This is the story, not of the tragedy of my disappearance, but rather the tragedy of my reappearance, my burial, my exhumation, and my reburial.
Get ready for July 16th when a body unexpectedly reappears…
Tom Thomson's Last Spring 