Suicide Vicitim: “He bought a gun and took the
safety course required to have it licenced.”

The Lethbridge Herald
Front, Friday, October 24, 2003, Page A1 By SHERRI GALLANT Lethbridge
Herald

When his wife and children were killed in a collision on the jail road
last year, Mircea (pronounced Meer-cha) Musca told his friends he felt
as though his own soul died along with them.

In fact, Mircea’s pain was so deep, so throbbing and unrelenting, that
six months of grief counselling and the constant support of loving
friends could do nothing to numb it.

Eventually, this new Canadian, a professor of veterinary medicine, an
intelligent, gentle and passionate person, set about quietly putting his
affairs in order. He appointed an executor to his will. He bought a gun
and took the safety course required to have it licenced. Mircea, who
came with his family from Romania to Canada in 1999, adored his chosen
country. He was careful to follow the rules.

Friends said he seemed more cheerful in the days leading up to his
death.
Those who work in suicide prevention have seen this too; when a person
truly wants to die, they are methodical but secretive with their plans
and, once the decision is made, they feel their burden lifting.

His body was found in his home on a Tuesday, Oct. 14, just after the
Thanksgiving weekend. Mircea left the briefest of notes, saying simply
that he couldn’t go on; that he was sorry.

Mircea’s sister, Mariana, came from Romania to help sort through her
brother’s things and attend his funeral. She came, too, when Elena and
the children died in August of last year. This past April, Mircea
visited Mariana, bringing the cremated remains of his family with him to
Romania for burial. His last wish was to be cremated and entombed there
with them.

Mircea’s dear friends from Lethbridge, John and Lydia Pater – also
Romanian immigrants – tried to be there for him as he reeled from his
loss. There were others, too. He was well-liked. Sometimes they stayed
with him into the wee hours, until he fell asleep. They spoke to him of
the comfort of God, but Mircea rejected Christianity. He was angry with
God for taking away his reason for living. Still, they kept trying.

When Elena and the children were killed, a Romanian priest from Calgary
presided over the funeral services. Father Vasile Moisi had just arrived
in Canada. The Musca family tragedy was the first service he would
conduct in his new homeland.

“That’s how I met Mircea,” Moisi said Friday, having come from St.
Andrew’s Romanian Orthodox Church in Calgary to co-officiate at Mircea’s
funeral.
“And then we became friends.” Because the death was by suicide, the
young priest needed special permission to attend.

“I hope his soul is with his family,” Moisi said. “I’m not sure,
but I
hope.
Pray for him, pray for his soul.”

Pastor Barry Siefert of Park Meadows Baptist Church in Lethbridge led
Friday’s service for Mircea, saying to live through the troubles that
life can bring as “overcomers,” we must unite our lives with Jesus.

“We may not agree with what he has done, but we can certainly understand
what brought him to that place,” Siefert said. “He had good friends and
a good job, but at the end of the day it couldn’t take away his pain. He
was left with an empty house and a heavy heart.”

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !