Dimos said he and his father, Leonidas, 75, were returning home from visiting relatives in Athens, Livadia and Mytilini — when tragedy struck on June 23. Since then, the family has faced bureaucratic delays, despite wanting to honor the Greek Orthodox tradition of performing a service 40 days after a death. Initially, Dimos didn’t know anyone in town when the plane landed in Winnipeg, and the local Greek community helped him find a funeral home. Dimos flew back to California, convinced that his dad’s body would soon follow. “My family and I feel very hurt,” Dimu said Thursday from Costa Mesa, about 70 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles, where his father lived with him. “Not only [has] My father, my best friend, died. He was a wonderful, sweet man. He doesn’t deserve such bad treatment.” Michael Vogiatzakis, the Winnipeg funeral director of Voyage Funeral Home, who is working with the family, said the protocol in these types of situations is to hold the body at a hospital until the medical examiner’s office completes its investigation. After that is done, the body must be released to a local funeral home until the death certificate arrives from the medical examiner, at which point he became involved, he said. WATCHES | Nick Dimou talks about delays after his father’s death:
Nick Dimos’ father died in a flight over Winnipeg almost a month ago. Still waiting for the body in California
California resident Nick Dimos has been waiting nearly a month for his father’s body after he died of a heart attack on a flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Winnipeg. Dimos’ father’s body cannot leave the country without a registered death certificate and approval from the Manitoba Office of Communicable Disease Control, Vogiatzakis said. He applied for registration on the death certificate from the Vital Statistics Agency of Manitoba weeks ago. Normally that takes three or four days, he said, adding that he paid a peak fee that should have reduced it to two days. But it took until last Wednesday to arrive. Now, the communicable disease control office must give the go-ahead for the agency to leave Manitoba — but it has not returned Vogiatzakis’ calls, he said. “This is a real black eye in this province where we could have handled it completely differently and we could have satisfied this family even though they lost their father,” Vogiatzakis said. “We could have made it a little easier by doing our paperwork, having their father back home where they could have their services and find closure as a community and as a family.”
“I just want to see my dad”
Dimos said his family is left in limbo, worried they may be running out of time to get a proper service for his father. In Greek Orthodox culture, a service is held 40 days after a person’s death to mark their journey to heaven. “It’s very important, especially for me closure. I don’t have closure. I still don’t believe – my father’s death, I don’t believe it. And I’m not sure if I’m not going to be able to see him before I bury him,” she said the Municipality with his voice breaking. “I just want to see my dad, I just want to see [him], you know, to hold him. And I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it right.” Dimos said caskets are usually left open for funerals in his culture — something Vogiatzakis said may no longer be an option. “It’s a race against time. And unfortunately, the clock beat us in that race because we embalmed the person for a short period of time, a few weeks, [and] it was very hot outside,” he said. “The person has been here for over a month and chances are he has an open coffin [have] gone, which is 100 percent wrong and disgusting, that a government would take that right away from an individual and from a family.” Michael Vogiatzakis is the funeral director of Voyage Funeral Home in Winnipeg. (Walther Bernal/CBC) The province has not responded to a request for comment from CBC News. Dimos said his initial experience with airport staff and the police showed him the friendly, kind side of Canada, but his later experience with the agencies responsible for bringing his dad’s body home left him disappointed. “Growing up as a kid and in life, I hear beautiful things about Canada. Nothing but great things. I believe that for the common people,” he said. “But I don’t trust your government because of how they treated me. And I wonder how many other people have been treated this way.”
