Tracy Malcolm Greene
1956-2020
BEAUTY FOR ASHES
“…to comfort all that mourn . . . to
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion; to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness; . . . that HE might be
glorified.”
(Isaiah 61:3 KJV)
The morning of Saturday, June 6, 2020 sprang forth with
Spring-like delights of birdsong and water fountains in the gardens of
McNally House Hospice in Grimsby, Ontario. While this day
was birthing, Tracy Greene’s earth life of 63 years was
slowly ebbing away and at 1:35 p.m., he breathed his first breath of
Heaven’s pristine air and came to the Lord Jesus.
With him, near his side were his wife, Virginia (Alfieri)
Greene and daughter, Angela (Greene) Dempsey; Angela had been playing
her father’s favourite hymns on an electric piano; Tracy
quietly slipped away to the tone of their soft voices and the sweet
notes flowing over him.
The first born to Malcolm and Mary Camilla (nee:
Lavigne) Greene, Tracy had 6 full blood siblings: Holly,
Shane, Trent, John, Tammy and Shonda. At a later time, 3
other half siblings came along: Beverley, Bethanie and
Andrew (children of Mary Camilla Greene and Beverley Tatton); all were
born on Grand Manan Island, NB, the “Queen of the Fundy
Isles”. Due to very unfortunate circumstances and
events, these children did not have the privilege of growing
up together as close siblings and foster care and adoption became
their next phase of life.
Tracy, being the eldest, felt this separation
deeply as he witnessed a number of his siblings being sent in
different directions. Not wanting this same fate for
himself, he set out, at age 14, to find his lost siblings and be with
them again. He ran away, somehow boarding the ferry
undetected and, upon reaching the mainland, headed up towards the
Trans Canada. When he reached this point he had to make a
choice – go right towards Saint John or left towards . . .
well, he didn’t know where. A group of boys were
in a cluster on the highway the Saint John’s way, so Tracy
decided to go left and he began walking. He had no money,
water, food . . . just his ice skates, an extra shirt, pants, socks, a
light jacket and his hockey cards. Where were his
siblings? He didn’t know but he just kept
walking. It was April and cold. Then, out of
nowhere it seemed, a car pulled up beside him and a lady
called: “Goin’ into
town?” Tracy had no idea which town she meant but
he was shivering and tired, so he nodded “yes”, got
in and was driven into the little town of St. George.
Since the lady had been nice, Tracy assumed that maybe the
town was also a nice place so he felt better after he was dropped off
– but, now where to go. Were his siblings in St.
George? He seemed to remember there was a
“St.” in front of the name of the town they had gone
when he had overheard conversations back on the Island. So,
he started walking again, becoming very tired and hungry. He
spied a water tower on a hill so climbed up and began to try to settle
himself in to sleeping at the bottom of it and figure things out in
the morning. He couldn’t go another
step.
And this is when his first miracle
happened. As he was huddling into his jacket to keep warm,
he saw a bonfire at the bottom of the other side of the hill and
people around it roasting hot dogs. Shyly, but with hunger
driving him, he made his way down to the fire. The people
accepted him readily and shared their bounty. Yet a certain
young boy in the crowd was fascinated by this “Huck
Finn” character and began asking curious questions, as only a
young “Tom Sawyerish” boy can.
This young boy’s name was Billy Wentworth, a
friendly kid who thought Tracy was on a fantastic adventure yet also
sensed he probably needed some help. After all, this strange
run a way boy was actually going to sleep under the town’s
water tower! He knew he had to tell his parents.
Off he ran home, which was not too far away, and told his parents of
this vagabond boy out by the fire. Immediately, his parents,
instructed Billy to bring this boy home. These
“angels” had the names of Norman and Marguerite
Wentworth. Though daughter, Nancy, was a bit unsure, Tracy was brought
into their home; he stayed 3 years, the happiest of his life at that
time, with 2 wonderful people who became his foster parents and Billy
and Nancy, his foster brother and sister. He laid in a bed
that night, clean, warm, dry and fed; sheltered and cared about . .
. yes . . . his first miracle.
Yet, despite these wonderful years and
his great love for his new family, he began to miss his mother and the
island. In the three years, he had discovered the
whereabouts of his three brothers, Shane, Trent and John (in foster
care in St. Stephen) and his sister Holly (with relatives in Grand
Bay, near West Saint John) and his young sister Tammy had been adopted
by Tracy’s very own Foster Family – the
Wentworths. Only his baby sister, Shonda, remained on the
island, adopted by a lovely woman named Phyllis Thompson. At 17, Tracy
felt the pull to return to the island and so he did; since his mother
was with Beverley Tatton at this time and had 3 more children
(Beverley, Bethanie and Andrew), Tracy was taken in by his aunt Elsie
and her husband, Royce Brown of Grand Harbour. Thus, Tracy
embarked on another season of good years, feeling at home and welcome,
finishing high school and working at summer jobs.
It was some pretty young girls in a Christian Singing Group
from a Bible School in Pennsylvania that began to lure Tracy to lands
beyond; he not only visited his new found friends in this State, but
also became close to a Pastor on Grand Manan who was moving to
St. Catharines, ON to take a Church there. Tracy
was invited to go along and live with them, and so he did; thus, he
came to Ontario. He was 19. It was
1976.
After living with the Pastor friend and family for a while,
he had acquired a job at the Ontario Pulp and Paper Company in
Thorold, ON; there, he met a gregarious Frenchman, Claude Gelainus,
who insisted he come live with him and his family; leaving the Pastor
and his family with no hard feelings, Tracy did move into the basement
of this new family in St. Catharines and thus began a life long
relationship. However, on an exploratory trip down the old Number 8 in
his car (he was able to afford one now that he had a pretty good job),
he discovered a grassroots, drop in centre in downtown Beamsville
called “The Turning Point”. The giant
wooden cross over the front door was a welcomed symbol as Tracy had
Sunday School and Church roots on the Island and during his years in
St. George. He entered through the front doors and found a room full
of mostly young people listening to a band on a little makeshift stage
in the corner of the little storefront. Coffee was brewing
in another corner beside plates full of homemade baking.
Tracy helped himself, took a seat, surveyed the room, people and band
and felt an immediate kinship to the place. It became a
regular stop on Friday and Saturday nights; here he met many wonderful
friends and enjoyed years of friendship and fellowship, not only with
the youth but with their families as well. Within the
following years, he enjoyed even nicer cars, motorcycles, dogs, many
trips home to the Island and elsewhere in North America and girls;
many he dated, two of which he married. His first marriage was to a
young Turning Point girl, yet this union lasted only 14 months or so
and ended in a divorce in 1983 when Tracy was 26.
Time moved along and changes came; Tracy
still had his great job at the Paper Mill and now, his own apartment
in Vineland, ON, just a hop, skip and a jump from
Beamsville. Yet, the Turning Point had also changed, and one
sultry summer day in late August of 1985, Tracy decided to visit the
old place again and see what was happening there.
He entered the front doors to find two offices on either side
and a large room further in that looked nothing like it did back in
the ‘old days’; that ‘drop –
in’ feeling was absent. As he stepped inside, a young girl
emerged from the left hand office and asked: “May I
help you?” Funny how a second in time and an
innocent question can change the course of one’s life on a
pin! Tracy gave a sideways glance as he leaned against the
door, his red cap jauntily resting over one of his sparkling
eyes. “This place looks like a lawyer’s
office!” he exclaimed as he suddenly stepped forward and
pushed through the doors into the larger room to the back.
The young girl, a bit alarmed, as she was the receptionist and
responsible for who comes into the establishment and for what reason,
quickly followed; but Tracy would not be stopped as he surveyed the
room, perhaps remembering his first visit there years
earlier. The girl proceeded to ask him questions and in no
time, the two were both reminiscing of their memories of the early
Turning Point days, as she had first discovered the street front
ministry in 1975. A tiny link had been forged which grew and
strengthened into a friendship, relationship and marriage of 31
years. (I, this writer, was that second girl Tracy
married).
Tracy Malcolm Greene (32) married Miss Virginia Gay
Alfieri (32) on Saturday, May 20, 1989 in Dunnville, ON, the hometown
of his wife. Honeymoon destination? Grand Manan Island of
course! And then back to their apartment in Kitchener, ON
where Tracy worked as a bricklayer and other miscellaneous
employment. Their one and only child was born on May 5,
1990, at the Kitchener – Waterloo Hospital; a sweet
daughter, Angela Danielle Patricia, the joy of their
lives.
Soon, their life’s journey took them to live in a
few places: Grand Manan Island, NB (1990 – 1993),
Beamsville, ON (1993 – 1998), Dunnville, ON (1998
– present date). Tracy and Virginia lived in 3
residences in Dunnville in these 21 years: their own home on
Lock Street West for 16 years, an apartment on Church Street for 2 and
½ years and then the house next door to the apartment
(which was Virginia’s childhood home since 1961) –
407 Church Street. This was Tracy’s address for
the last 4 years of his life. Within these years noted
above, our daughter Angela married Peter Charles Dempsey on April 28,
2012 and moved into her own home, thankfully close by, on the
outskirts of Dunnville. Tracy worked at several jobs and
careers.
When on the Island, he was employed in various aspects of the
fishing industry as well as bricklaying. In Ontario, along
with masonry, he became a professional transport driver – owner
operator, driving all over North America. His last career
was becoming a PSW, a work he loved, was better suited for and kept
him closer to home, serving in both nursing home and private home care
settings. He did this work right up to the time of the
beginning of his illness in 2016.
In these last 4 years, within the looming poor health, Tracy
was able to love and enjoy his dear daughter, Angela and 2 darling
granddaughters, Rebekah Elizabeth (January 9, 2014) and Kalyn Nicole
(July 1, 2017), delights of his life. In these struggling years, Tracy
(along with Virginia) tried to work, delivering ads for over a year,
but the manifestations of diabetes began to accelerate and soon
dialysis became part of his life, thereby inhibiting not only work but
the wonderful summer holidays to “his island” as the
dialysis treatments were 3 times a week, taking up most of those days,
due to the transportation from Dunnville to Hamilton and
back. They were tough years. Within these years,
there were myriad work up tests, appointments, procedures, etc. . . .
endless trips to doctors and labs; a 3 way heart bypass and 2 cataract
surgeries and an implanted fistula (for dialysis) were accomplished
along the way; an alarming toe ulceration and a terrible fall
resulting in very painful rotator cuff syndrome dominated 2019 until
finally, a kidney became available; the transplant took place on
October 7, 2019. At last, we were on the last quarter mile
of our long race! Tracy just had to recover well from his
transplant, do the blood work, take the anti-rejection medications,
get strong and we were assured that by the summer of 2020, he would be
strong and well enough to enjoy a deeply desired, long awaited holiday
on Grand Manan. We were going to go back to the
“Island” for a long stay and rest, brush the cobwebs
of the last 4 years away and talk about what we would do
next. It was a lovely dream.
2020 seemed to begin well. Tracy was
becoming stronger and his blood work was good. The Post
Transplant Team at St. Joe’s seemed pleased.
But a cold set in upon Tracy in late January; by February, he
was not getting over it very well and a strange, throbbing pain began
to wrack the left side of his head – unbearable at
times. There was a burning behind his left eye and the pain
would come in spasms that would cause him to cry out. Two ER
visits and a CAT scan resulted in being sent home with stronger and
stronger pain pills until the night of March 11, when he could no
longer stand up and could hardly bear the pain; the paramedics were
called and Tracy left 407 Church Street. I
(this writer) watched the ambulance drive away before
preparing to follow in my car, not realizing Tracy was leaving the
house forever. He was rushed to St. Joe’s in the
early hours of March 12 where an emergency operation was done to
attempt to eradicate the already invasive fungal infection that had
viciously spread throughout his sinuses, upper palate, behind his left
eye and even back to the base of his brain.
The name for this brutal enemy was murcomycosis, a very rare
and deadly fungal infection that is usually fatal unless caught in
time.
Though, for the next 75 days in St. Joe’s, the
medical staff tried their best to debride the fungus and, with many
medications (antibiotics and antifungals), the infection had, in fact,
spread into Tracy’s brain; a place they could not
operate. It was during this terrible ordeal that a world
wide horror was also going on – Covid 19 – the
lockdown beginning almost the same time Tracy went into the
hospital. This made the already dreadful situation magnified
a thousand fold. In the 75 days Tracy was in St.
Joe’s, I was allowed in 4 times, 3 hours at a time, for
which I was grateful – yet – oh how horrendous it
was for Tracy there alone in his bed, and me, alone at home, so
helpless and not able to even be by his side. These days, as
I remember them, are unspeakable.
When the doctors at St. Joe’s concluded that they
could no longer help Tracy, the next step had to be decided.
Since his care now was so great, I could not bring him home.
The only thing left was a hospice. With the medical
staff’s assistance, McNally House Hospice in Grimsby,
Ontario was chosen and it was here, that Tracy lived out the last 23
days of his life. With the quietness and privacy of the
hospice, the sounds of flowing water and birdsong, the pretty gardens
outside the window, fresh air streaming in through the patio screen
and the gentle care of the palliative care nurses, these last days
were as good as they could be, under the circumstances; yet they were
painful, not so much in a physical sense but spiritually, mentally,
and emotionally. These three took a physical toll.
To express the fathoms of diverse thoughts, feelings, words and
prayers of those seconds of those 23 days is impossible.
Only the Lord Father God can know the depths. Much prayer rose up
within those walls, much oil poured, the prayer cloth applied, hymns
were sung, worship offered and millions of tears fell . . .
yet, Saturday, June 6, at 1:35 p.m. was Tracy’s
“Heaven Day” . . . his “Heaven
Moment” . . . and his spirit slipped away to God with Angela
and myself (Virginia) at his side.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of
His saints.”
(Psalm 116:15 KJV)
Tracy is pre-deceased by his brother Shane Greene
(April 2, 1998), sister Holly McKeown (November 6, 2012), father
Malcolm Greene (January 25, 2006), mother Mary Camilla Brown (May 2,
2018), aunt Hannah Mullen (March 2018), aunt Daphne Foote (2018),
step-father Royce Brown (2003), uncle Clary Guthrie (2014), Stuart
Guthrie (2001), and nephew Joey McKeown (Holly) (July 22,
2008).
Tracy leaves behind brothers, Trent Greene, Saint John, NB,
John Greene, Calgary, AB, Beverley Greene,NS, Andrew Brown, NS;
sisters, Tammy Cook, Grand Manan, NB, Shonda Zwicker, Annapolis
Valley, NS, Bethanie Brown, Grand Manan, NB; plus many nieces and
nephews: Malcolm, McKeown, Sheldon McKeown (Holly), Tyler Greene
(Shane), Michael, and Sarah Greene, Amy Conway (Trent), Christopher
Wentworth, Jaydan and Larissa Wilson (Tammy), Jordan and Shayna Calder
(Shonda), Korbin, LaShaya, Nigel, Cheyanne,and Vincent Brown
(Bethanie), Connor Ingersoll (Andrew); As well, two uncles, Mark and
Eric Guthrie and one aunt, Reesa Brotherton and many cousins. By
marriage, Tracy leaves behind sister in law, Annette Forbes, brother
in law, Murray Forbes, and their children, Nick Forbes, Caroline
Forbes, Kimberley Forbes and Darlene Forbes. Last but not
least, are several dear friends: Blaine and Julie Russell,
Colin and Mary Bagley, Chris and Rhonda Hettrick, Pastor Ruth Parker,
Jackie Foote, Albion Benson on Grand Manan; Norman and Marguerite
Wentworth, Billy and Susan Wentworth in St. George; Brad and Nancy
Cushing in Beaver Harbour; Esther Bagley, Jerry Bagley and Family in
Moncton; Gavin and Jean Wilcox in Kingston (all in New
Brunswick).
A small “Covid style” Memorial/Farewell
Service was held in honour of Tracy on the evening of Monday, June 8,
2020 at “Essentials”(Cremation and Burial Services)
in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Ten friends and family assembled
to celebrate, reminisce and respect the life of dear Tracy.
Pastor Don Middlemiss of Orchard Creek Community Church in Thorold,
Ontario, a long-time friend of Tracy, gave a magnificent homily, not
only remembering Tracy but also giving a powerful message of Christ;
His love and salvation to us. To have Don to conduct the
Service was at Tracy’s request and I am so thankful Don did
so. Other participants to speak were Pastor Peter Dempsey of
Dunnville First Baptist Church, Dunnville, ON, and friend Wes Beach,
formally of the ‘White Dove Prayer Centre’ where
he and Tracy first met in 2016.
Both shared thoughts and memories of Tracy. Most
poignant, was the exquisite music of Tracy’s (our) daughter,
Angela Dempsey. Having brought her electric piano, she led
our small gathering in 2 congregational hymns: “In
Christ Alone” and “10,000 Reasons”; as
well, she sang and played 2 songs, as a special tribute to her
father:
“Oceans” and “Create In
Me A Clean Heart” (Tracy’s favourite Keith Green
song). I (Virginia) spoke his eulogy entitled “Mending Broken
Things”, read the lyrics of a lovely old hymn,
“Breathe On Me Breath Of God” and read a poem I had
written for Tracy years ago entitled “A Love Poem Of The
Sea” (A Prose For Tracy).
Angel Friends, Susan Anderson and Judy Meadows Robison,
spread the “ambiance of Tracy” into the scene by
placing his nautical art around the room; a painting of the
Swallowtail Lighthouse on Grand Manan (painted by both Tracy and
Angela together years earlier) and a hand build model sailboat (Tracy
had built many of these through the years and also had done many
paintings). It gave the “touch of the sea .
. . an island feeling”. Along with the
small buffet the girls provided as well,
(“Essentials” providing the hot beverages, soft
drinks and water), a meaningful time of fellowship followed; a fitting
and respectful ending to the time of honouring Tracy and bidding
“farewell”.
In closing of this long epistle, I would like to thank the
Owners and Staff of “Essentials Cremation and
Burial Service” for their most excellent service,
professionalism, care and compassion during our (my daughter
Angela’s and my) time of mourning of our father and
husband.
Their setting and ambiance is one of beauty, soft colours,
light and peace and their assistance in all aspects of this difficult
process is superior. My deepest thanks to you
all.
Very sincerely,
Mrs. Virginia Greene
Mrs. Angela Dempsey
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Tracy Malcolm Greene 19562020..
Death notice for the town of: Grand Manan, Province: Nouveau-Brunswick