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What followed was the visitation, the funeral and The doctors were right; two weeks later the biggest support in Courtois‘ life was gone. "It was like everything happened as if I was in a trance," she said. Fitzgerald was given two weeks to live, and Courtois had little time to say goodâ€" bye. So when her grandma complained of breathing problems, she was illâ€"preâ€" pared for the prognosis. The Waterloo woman would sneak out of class at Bluevale collegiate and go to her grandma‘s house a couâ€" ple of blocks away for lunch, or whenever she needed a break. It was her little oasis in troubling times. She was devastated when her grandmother, Betty Fitzgerald, passed away from cancer April 17, 2003. Fitzgerald had been Courâ€" tois‘ confident as a teenager, sharing things she couldn‘t tell her mother and others. erena Courtois didn‘t Sknow how much her grandmother‘s _ old metallic blue CCM Encore bike meant to her until it was gone. Wfltfll:lflll woman spends years . tracking dflwq grandmother‘s bicycle By Bos VrBanac Chronicle Staff "I don‘t know how she managed it," said Courtois. "But everyday she would bike to get groceries, and somehow managed to fit three bags of milk and That‘s still the most vivid memory Courtois has of her grandma â€" driving down the street with the old lagy tabby along for the ride. Her favourite cat, a big old orange tabby, would often hop into the basket for a ride. Fitzgerald used it to go grocery shopping, stuffing all the bags in the front basâ€" ket. When her _ grandma smacked up her last car and stopped driving at age 65, her only mode of transport was her bike. Courtois said her grandâ€" ma‘s most prized possession was an old blue CCM Encore bike with a black wire basket and a yellow license plate on the back. But there was something missing. She still wears the ring on her right hand as a reminder of the most loving and influâ€" ential person in her life. It all went by in a blur, but Courtois managed to hold on to her grandma‘s birthstone ring. the settling of the estate CITY NEWS The old bike, sold for $15, was supposed to go in a place of honour with all the other relics of the past. Lost in all of the commoâ€" tion after Fitzgerald‘s passâ€" ing, the old bike was sold to Braun‘s Bicycle in Kitchener to be part of the 81â€"yearâ€"old shop‘s museum of twoâ€" wheelers. Courtois said her grandâ€" ma refused to move it, and she remembered having to watch T.V. through the spokes of the front wheel. The bike sat in a place of honour in her grandma‘s house, right in the middle of the living room with the cat using it as a scratching post. tois. "Some people said she was a character, but to me she was just grandma." "Every little piece had a serial number," said Courâ€" Nobody was going to take her bike or the old Hiâ€"fi stereo she also had engraved. Fitzgerald loved the bike so much that when there was a rash of breakins in her neighbourhood, she took her bike to the police station and had them engrave the serial number on every part of the bike. accessories â€" the whole nine yards â€" in her basket on her handle bars." She bumped into Roger, one of the owners of Braun‘s Bicycle and the grandson of the original proprietors of the Kitchener landmark. She asked about the rbikc, but it didn‘t ring a bell. That was until last week when Courtois took her husband‘s bike for some muchâ€"needed repairs. "I just thought it was gone," she said. Three years passed, and those paths remained starâ€" crossed with Courtois startâ€" ing to give up hope that she would ever see the bike again. She was told time and again that the owners were the only ones who could help her find it, but she never managed to cross paths with them. So the avid biker went to the store with her hu?and. Kris, and asked abokt the bike. "I would never ride it; it would stay the way it is because this was grandma‘s bike," said Courtois. She wanted the bike back as her own memorial to her grandma. * Courtois, who wasn‘t part of the initial sale, had regrets right away. Serenaâ€"Courtois spent three years trying to track down the old CCM Encore bike that was her grandmother‘s favourite possession. Courâ€" tois said she has a lot of special memories of her grandmother, Betty Fitzgerâ€" ald, and tried her best to reclaim the bike as a memoâ€" rial to her. She finally tracked down the bike last week, and promises to never let it go again. Continued on page 6 808 VRBANAC PHOTO Hilton Landmarks Inc. was retained to complete a cemetery services busiâ€" ness case study â€" which falls within the cemetery services Bechtel Park masâ€" ter plan â€" to help the city evaluate its options for the future in light of the curâ€" rent situation. The consultants Mount Hope is nearing capacity and has no develâ€" opable lands. Meanwhile, its cremaâ€" tion inventory will see the city through the next 15 years. Parkview‘s available space for traditional casket internment is nearing capacity, with an estimatâ€" ed six years of sales invenâ€" tory remaining, the report said. "There is a real immeâ€" diate need for land in the Catholic section of the (Parkview) cemetery. It has less than five years," she "Because we have a cemetery land shortage, we have to come up with some sort of solution for that," Anderson said, adding land in the Parkview Cemetery is in short supply. But cemetery lands will have to be expanded to facilitate the continuation of these services, said city landscape architect Karen Anderson in an interview. And the City of Waterâ€" loo has been providing these services for more than 140 years. It owns two cemeteries: Mount Hope and Parkview. â€"_Almost 60 per cent of the province‘s cemeteries are owned by municipaliâ€" ties, according to a cemeâ€" tery services business case study submitted to counâ€" cil. Wa(erloo city council approved a recomâ€" mendation to continue providing the community with cemetery services, at Monday night‘s city counâ€" cil meeting. Waterloo still facing lack of cemetery lands By Jennirer Ormsron _ For The Chronicle consultants "We‘re trying to balance the two." Next, in phase three of the sixâ€"phase master plan study, the city will look at Parkview and the Bechtel Park lands and come up with different options that would allow some expanâ€" sion of the cemetery, but also provide for continued recreational use there, Anderson said. Other solutions are out there, Whaley said. Ward 4 Coun. Mark Whaley said, council is receiving information and moving onto the next phase, which is merely considering the expansion of the cemetery into the park lands. "This option maintains a continuous delivery of cemetery services to the community at a recogâ€" nized location, has limited shortâ€"term impacts to the inventory of sports fields at Bechtel Park, provides staff with the opportunity to better assess trends from all perspectives as we move toward the future and is the most financially responsible approach to the delivery of cemetery services," the report said. The option that best meets the needs of the community is expanding into Bechtel Park lands, said Rob Hilton, of Hilton Landmarks Inc. acquiring new cemetery land. The top four recomâ€" mendations were for the city to continue providing cemetery services, expand into Bechtel Park, redevelâ€" op the park‘s Bridge Street entrance and explore Based on these options, the consultants came up with 18 recommendations, which city staff refined, Anderson said. explored five options: maintaining the status quo, selling cemetery operations, expanding Parkview into Bechtel Park lands, expanding at an alternate site or limiting development to cremation only. Sales Representative in Kâ€"W For Over 15 Years Twin City Reaity Inc Karin Barthel