Harold Burgetz

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• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-62328

Notes:

Lifetimes: Kind and generous, Harold Burgetz lived a simple but industrious life

Dec 12, 2016 by Valerie Hill Waterloo Region Record

Harold Burgetz of Kitchener

Born: Jan. 12, 1933, in Kitchener

Died: Nov. 18, 2016, of age-related illness

Harold Burgetz was born in a 1920s Mennonite homestead located on a Kitchener street named in his family's honour. His education didn't extend beyond Grade eight and from childhood he understood the meaning of hard physical work.

Harold never married and instead would spend his life living with his unmarried sister, Alice Burgetz, in that same house where they both were born and where they cared for their father until he died in 1981.

While Harold's life might have appeared lonely, even unfulfilled, such assumptions are wrong.

The Burgetz family has always been a close bunch and after nieces and nephews began arriving, Harold quickly became the favourite uncle and the target of lots of hugs.

Niece Judy Shantz adored her uncle, said he was an uncomplicated sort of man, naïve in ways and given to trusting people. It meant he was sometimes taken advantage of but Harold seemed to flow through life, happy and content with what he had.

Harold was born the youngest of five on a homestead in what was then known as the German Company Tract, an area that later became Waterloo Township. Today the house is unassuming, an aging two story aluminum sided structure. But behind the modern cladding is a surprise: broad axe hewn logs from a nearby bush and thick, wooden walls with wide chinking. Each old room is a repository for stories, not all of them happy.

Harold's parents, Lucinda and John, moved into the house as newlyweds, but the small piece of property made it difficult to eke out a living as market gardeners.

Hill, V. (2016). Lifetimes: Kind and generous, Harold Burgetz lived a simple but industrious life | TheRecord.com. TheRecord.com. Retrieved 19 May 2017, from https://www.therecord.com/news-story/7014888-lifetimes-kind-and-generous-harold-burgetz-lived-a-simple-but-industrious-life/