When Walter Zilky Reusch passed away in 2002, his Winnipeg neighbourhood immortalized the man with a two-storey mural.
“The murals in our neighbourhood, they tell the story of the history of the West End, the history of the neighbourhood,” local resident Joe Kornelsen told CTV News. The city’s West End is home to Winnipeg’s largest collection of outdoor murals.
“(They) talk about the people who have lived in the neighbourhood,” Kornelsen said.
Zoohky, as Reusch was affectionately known, was a man with a knack for collecting and fixing things who harboured a deep love of poetry.
But recently, the larger-than-life mural that memorialized Zoohky for 14 years, was literally defaced during renovations by the building’s new owners. Zoohky’s face, you see, was previously painted on top of a boarded-up window and the board has since been replaced with a pane of glass.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Erika Wiebe, the former editor of the West Central Streets community newspaper. “He had been in this neighbourhood for a long time and he’d been a valued member of the community.”
The mural was so loved that the community even demanded a touch-up after it was initially painted, requesting that the artist include Zoohky’s bicycle, which the elderly man was seldom seen without. The bicycle now has a window in it too.
With no known family, it is the neighbourhood itself that is left to preserve Zoohky’s memory.
“Not every mural is meant to last forever,” local mural artist Charlie Johnston said. “But there are certain murals that have a very special meaning for people and those murals are the ones we like see last as long as possible.”
There, is however, a possible fix.
At a cost of roughly $2,500, the new owners and a local business council are working together to restore the mural. By summertime, it’s hoped that the three gaping holes in the original painting will be replaced with decorated vinyl screens placed over the windows. And while it’s not the original vision for this piece of artwork, at least Zoohky will be back in the neighbourhood he once loved so much.
With a report from CTV’s Manitoba Bureau Chief Jill Macyshon
