An Anarchist's Obituary

Like me, my grandfather was an anarcho-socialist. Here is his obituary:

Christ Lazaroff Shashko

On February 14, 1976 Christ Shashko died at Ford Hospital in Detroit. Christ was born on September 25, 1896 to Zoya and Lazar in the village of Breznitsa, the region of Kostur, Macedonia. He was the second of four children in the family. He attended the village school where he learned to read and write his Mother country language. The Hinden Uprising against Ottoman rule and the revolutionary activity that followed made young Christ aware of the people's suffering and struggle for liberation.

Christ's search for a better life and his desire to help his parents led him in 1911 to leave his homeland and emigrate to the United States. The first several years in the New World were spent working long hours at various manual jobs and leaving little time for anything else. He was able, however, to teach himself to read and write English soon after his arrival in the United States. Although the life of the immigrant worker was a difficult one, Christ, by living together and sharing both joys and sorrows with his relatives and friends was able to overcome the daily problems he had to face. He worked for several years at the Northwest Railroad, a few years as a foreman at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, and during the last twenty years his family lived in Dearborn, Michigan. After his retirement Christ spent his time working in the house garden, reading and enjoying the company of his seven grandchildren.

Being a common worker himself and experiencing all the injustices the worker had to face, Christ became interested in and associated with groups and movements fighting for social justice and equality. One such organization which he joined when he was young was the Industrial Workers of the World. This organization appealed to him because it envisaged the abolition of the wage system, class and national distinctions and the creation of a social order in which all good things of life would be distributed to the people with complete justice. Christ was a lifelong subscriber and supporter of SUZNANIE and NARODNA VOLYA and always contributed toward the support of what he considered to be worthy social causes and movements. Being a practical man Christ spared no efforts to put into practice his beliefs. It would be no exaggeration to say that Christ helped, as much as he could, almost all those relatives and friends in both Europe and America who were in need. He was one of the few workers, for example, who spent not only money in buying but many hours in tying and mailing packages filled with notebooks, pens and pencils for needy schoolchildren.

Although Christ was young when he came to the New World and became an American citizen he never forgot his native land. He always took an interest in the events taking place there and made several trips to Breznitsa. During his sojourn there in 1930 he married Dafina Gergin. Christ is survived by his wife Dafina and four children: Theodore, Elena, Anthula, and Philip. Dafina, Theodore and his wife Flora and their sons Christ and Nicholas live in Dearborn; Anthula, her husband William and their sons Christopher and Michael live in Warren, Michigan; Philip and his wife Dragitsa and their children Alexander and Tanya life in Shorewood, Wisconsin; Elena and her husband Lazar and their son Lambo live now in Plovdiv, Blugaria. Christ is also survived by his sister Alexandra and two brothers, John and William and their families. All of them live in Dearborn, Michigan.

POKLON PRED SVETLA TI PAMET

Mrs. Dafina Christ Shashko and Family