‘Dogs deserve to be honoured’: Holiday memorial tree

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More than two decades ago, Shirley Young of North Vancouver wanted to find a way to honour her dead son’s guide dog during Christmas.

She decided to hang a photo of the black Labrador, Harvey, on a tree that he used to stroll by each day. Little did she know the idea would catch on.

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Today, the pine tree along Mosquito Creek Trail is adorned with laminated photos, names and toys of dozens of other family pets who have died, along with bulb ornaments and garland.

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The tributes include messages “Merry Christmas” and “See you on the next level my angel” to golden retriever siblings Chile and Dublin and to “the three amigos” felines Savannah, Guinness and Chamski. One is a picture of a dog with a rubber chicken chew toy attached.

Young, 90, said she finds great comfort in knowing that other people in her neighbourhood feel the same way as she does about their dead pets.

“Dogs deserved to be honoured too,” said Young, whose son Dr. Peter Jepson-Young rose to fame promoting AIDS awareness in the early 1990s by documenting his own experience living with the disease on the television series The Dr. Peter Diaries.

“My husband Bob and I were just so devastated after we lost Harvey — he had made my son’s life so much easier and truly was a part of our family,” said Young.

Harvey had become known to B.C. viewers of The Dr. Peter Diaries as the eyes of Jepson-Young, who, two years after his HIV diagnosis, lost his sight due to viral retinitis.

After her son died at age 35 in 1992, Young said, Harvey attended the funeral — beside Jepson-Young’s partner Andy Hiscox — at Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral.

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“Harvey felt like the last piece we had left of Peter,” said Young, who would join Hiscox and Harvey on their daily jaunts along the 7.4-kilometre trail.

The dog died in 1998.

When Young first hung a laminated image of Harvey with the words “world famous guide dog” on the tree, she had no intentions of sparking a communityzwide memorial.

“We put him there so we had somewhere to pay our respects,” said the mother.

The tribute tree became more popular this week after being posted to social media by Courtney Carson of Vancouver.

“Went for a walk and found a Christmas tree dedicated to people’s pets that have passed,” Carson captioned the video of the memorial, which has amassed close to half a million views on TikTok.

At the end of this month, Young will haul the images home to dry, as she has for the past 25 years. The 90-year-old is planning to bring them out of storage again next December, so the memorial can come back to life just in time for Christmas.

“It’s a funny-looking tree, but it means a lot to me,” said Young. “I hope that families who are missing loved ones this holiday season know that they are not alone.”

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sgrochowski@postmedia.com

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