Abraham and Maria Loewen’s oldest son, Johann, found himself in the Red Army through conscription, following the revolution of 1917. Initially, he was fighting with forces near Petrograd (St. Petersburg), but later he was sent to the south to fight against Deniken’s White Army on the Black Sea. The family lost contact with him and he never returned home. 

     It is difficult enough to lose a son, but it must have been even more difficult emigrating to Canada in 1926, not knowing for certain, if Johann had in fact died, and if so, where and under what circumstances. The answer came almost 30 years later.

     Jacob, who had elected to remain in Russia to complete his studies, never managed to leave. The letters between himself and the family in Canada were censored by authorities, as per regular practice. One of the censored letters exchanged between Jacob and his parents in Canada, 30 years later, arrived at Jacob’s home with an inserted note from the censor. The censor had personally known Johann and revealed for the first time how Johann had met his fate – that he had died of typhus in Sochi on December 18, 1921, at the age of 22.

     Johann was the second oldest in the family and no doubt left a deep void, felt by both his parents and older siblings. His younger brother, Abram, has expressed how close a relationship he had had with his older brother, and that he missed him dearly. Sister, Lena, would have been equally devasted. Although I am not aware of any similar expressions of sorrow on her part, a measure of how much she loved him is the fact she kept Johann’s childhood tie as a keepsake until her passing (now in my possession).