Martin Tarback

Abt 1969 - 2009  (~ 40 years)

• Name	Martin Tarback
  Born	Abt 1969	of, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Gender	Male
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-4747
  Died	17 Mar 2009	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Person ID	I4747	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

• Photos		Martin Tarback Homeless for seven years, Martin Tarback spends many of his days in downtown Kitchener, where he has found social agencies to help him with his alcohol and mental health problems.
  		Martin Tarback

  
  

• Notes

  Year and a half after his death, homeless man's body still waits for burial KITCHENER - When we talk about final resting places, most of us think of a burial plot in a cemetery, a commemorative urn or ashes scattered at a meaningful place. But what about the basement of a funeral home? For some forgotten dead, that's exactly where they end up. They're stuck in limbo - either abandoned or overlooked by their next of kin. Martin Tarback, a well-known homeless man whose death in March 2009 drew hundreds to his memorial service, is one of them. A year and a half after the 41-year-old's death from cancer, Tarback's cremated remains are still at the Henry Walser Funeral Home - kept in a locked room while staff there wait on instructions from his sister. Tarback's case is not unique, say people in the funeral business. Abandoned bodies are more common than you might think, and there are dozens of them at local funeral homes still waiting for a final resting spot. "You'd be surprised how common this is," said John McGlynn, a funeral director at the Henry Walser Funeral Home. "Martin's aren't the only ashes here at the funeral home that we've had for quite some time. There are other families in the same boat." Tarback's mother, Elly Alexander, wants to give her son a final resting place. But the law prevents her from doing that. "I'm sick to my stomach about it," she said. "I just want him to be buried so I can go and visit him. But he's still in a box on a shelf." Alexander doesn't have next of kin status for Tarback, so she can't tell the funeral home what she'd like done with his remains. The Waterloo Region Record 13 Nov 2010 By Greg Mercer, Record staff _____________________________ "And I want to fly but I just can't seem to find a way Could you please help me 'Cause I'm tryin' " --Martin Tarback, October 1992

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - Abt 1969 - of, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 17 Mar 2009 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth