Ici repose: The Hamel family of Comaplix

One of most poignant epitaphs I’ve ever seen appears on twin gravemarkers in what is probably West Kootenay’s most remote cemetery.

The Hamel siblings, Adélia Annee Lilly and Willy Joseph Alphonse, died at Comaplix, on the northeast arm of Upper Arrow Lake, in 1903. Their gravemarkers read in French: Quand on est pur comme à ton âge le dernier jour est le plus beau. Translated, “When one is pure as at your age, the last day is the most beautiful.”

I’ve written about them before and the little cemetery where they are buried — which is primarily accessible by boat and only if you know where to look. But thanks to an online family tree and Google, I can add more about both the family and the epitaph.

The graves of Lilly and Willy Hamel are seen at Comaplix in 2005.

Their father was Alphonse Joseph Hamel (also spelled Hamell and Hammill), born Oct. 6, 1859, in St. Jean Deschaillons, Que. to Alexis Hamel and Marie Margurite Lavigne. He had at least nine siblings plus two half-siblings.

Alphonse’s wife, Marie Fridoline Hebert, was born on Jan. 4, 1871 in St. Edouard, Que. to Hormidas Hebert and Marie Odile Beaudin. She had ten siblings.

On the 1891 census they were both shown as single and living in New Westminster. Alphonse was working as a cook in a boarding house while Marie’s entire family was farming; her mother had recently died in Richmond.

They wed at Vancouver on Nov. 15, 1892; Alphonse was 33 and Marie was 22. One of the witnesses was George Mercier, but I can’t make out the name of the other. (Their wedding registration is pictured at right.)

According to the 1901 census, their daughter Lilly was born on May 19, 1894, but her birth was not registered. Her death registration indicates she was born at Steveston.

Another child was also born to the family at Steveston on Sept. 7, 1896, but stillborn. Alphonse was away for some reason, so the death registration was filled out by an H. Trueman of New Westminster.

The Hamels moved to the interior sometime in the next two years, as the 1901 census indicates Willy was born on July 10, 1898 and his death registration gives his place of birth as Revelstoke. The census data would make them eight and four when they died, respectively; the death registrations eight and three; and their grave markers nine and six.

The Revelstoke Herald of Aug. 21, 1901 reported:

Mr. Hamell had quite a little excitement at his ranche [sic] the other day. A brown bear came down to the ranche and carried one of his best pigs. Mr. Hammil offered $10 to any person who would shoot the bear. Mr. Devebro [sic] of Comaplix accepted the offer and succeeded in killing the bear. Mr. Hamill’s ranch, which is situated about three miles from Comaplix, is the popular stopping place between Comaplix and Camborne. The ranch produces an excellent variety of vegetables with which Mr. Hamill supplies the local market.

There were a few other newspaper mentions of the family:

J.H. Young of Comaplix was badly hurt on Aug. 25 by being thrown from his horse near Hamill’s ranch, where he has been laid up ever since … (Revelstoke Herald, Sept. 14, 1901)

Mrs. Hammill of Comaplix and her two children are in town visiting friends for a few days. (Revelstoke Herald, Oct. 2, 1901)

Last Thursday a pleasant dance was given at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Hamell on the Comaplix wagon road. A large number of friends from Comaplix and Thomson’s Landing attended and a most thoroughly enjoyable evening was spent. (Revelstoke Herald, Feb. 26, 1902)

A son, Ernest George, was born to them at Revelstoke on July 21, 1902.

But I can’t imagine the grief Alphonse and Marie experienced on March 12, 1903 when malignant scarlet fever claimed both Lilly and Willy. Near as I can tell, they were the first to be buried at Comaplix. However, news of their passing does not seem to have appeared in any newspaper.

Their epitaph, I have only just learned, comes from a poem by Jean Reboul entitled L’Ange Et L’Enfant (The Angel and the Child), written in 1828. This is the full poem, side-by-side with Google’s literal translation (and a bit of human assistance).

Un ange au radieux visage,

Penché sur le bord d’un berceau,

Semblait contempler son image,

Comme dans l’onde d’un ruisseau.

Charmant infant qui me ressemble,

Disait-il, oh viens avec moi!

Viens, nous serons heureux ensemble.

La terre est indigne de toi.

La jamais entière allégresse;

L’âme y souffre de ses plaisirs;

Les cris de joie ont leur tristesse,

Et les voluptés leurs soupirs.

La crainte est de toutes les fêtes;

Jamais un jour calme et serein

Du choc ténébreux des tempêtes

N’a garanti le lendemain

Eh quoi! les chagrins, les alarmes

Viendraient troubler ce front si pur?

Et par l’amertume des larmes

Je ternirais ces yeux d’azur!

Non, non! dans les champs de l’espace

Avec moi tu vas t’envoler;

La Providence te fait grâce

Des jours, que tu devais couler.

Que personne dans ta demeure

N’obscurcisse ses vêtements;

Qu’on accueille ta derniere heure

Ainsi que tes premiers moments.

Que les fronts y soient sans nuage,

Que rien n’y révèle un tombeau:

Quand on est pur comme à ton âge,

Le dernier jour est le plus beau.

Et secouant ses blanches ailes,

L’ange à ces mots prit son essor

Vers les demeurs éternelles

Pauvre mère! ton fils est mort

An angel of radiant face

Leaning over the edge of a cradle,

Seemed to contemplate his image,

As in the wave of a stream.

“Lovely child who looks like me,

He said, “oh come with me!”

Come, we will be happy together.

The earth is unworthy of you.

The happiness never entire;

The soul suffers from its pleasures there;

The cries of joy have their sadness,

And the sensual delights their sighs.

Fear is at every party;

Never a calm and serene day

In the dark shock of the storms

There is no guarantee of tomorrow.

What! That sorrows, alarms

Would come trouble this brow so pure?

And by the bitterness of tears

I would tarnish these azure eyes!

No, no! In the fields of space

With me you will fly away;

Providence spares you

The days you had to throw away.

May no one in your home

Darken their clothes;

May your last hour be welcomed

Just as your first moments.

May the brows there be unclouded

May nothing there reveal a tomb:

When one is pure as at your age,

The last day is the most beautiful.

And shaking his white wings,

The angel with these words took flight

To the eternal home

Poor mother! Your son is dead

There is a human-generated translation here and another here. These translate the epitaph as “Of so unspotted and pure a thing/The loveliest morning is still the last,” and “To one within thy tender age/Thy last must be thy brightest day.” A version was also adapted as a Lutheran hymn.

Marie Hamel gave birth to a daughter at Comaplix on Feb. 27, 1904. She was named Fridoline (or Frideline), her mother’s middle name. But the family did not remain in the area much longer.

The Revelstoke Herald announced on Aug. 25, 1904: “Comaplix, Aug. 23 Alphonse Hammil, a farmer of this vicinity, sold out his farm to John de Rose last Tuesday. The deeds were made out in Revelstoke on Wednesday last.”

The Revelstoke Kootenay Mail added two days later: “Alphonse Hammil has sold his 160 acre farm at Comaplix to John de Rose for $3,000.” On Sept. 1 the Herald concluded: “Mr. and Mrs. Hammil, formerly of Comaplix, left on Wednesday morning for Winnipeg where they will reside in future.”

And for a long time, that was the last I knew about the Hamels. But the online family tree compiled by Michelle Anderson reveals they had another daughter in Winnipeg, Louise Anne, born on Oct. 20, 1906. Sometime in the next two years they moved to the US, where George Joseph was born on April 2, 1911 at Worcester, Mass. and Alphonse Joseph Jr. was born Jan. 22, 1913 at Manchester, New Hampshire.

On the 1910 US census, the family is shown running a grocery store in Worcester. On the 1920 and 1930 census, Alphonse is a napper at a cotton mill in Manchester (a napper is someone who creates the fuzzy nap on flannel and other textiles).

Marie Fridoline Hebert Hamel died of liver cancer on Dec. 13, 1930 at Manchester, age 59. Alphonse Joseph Hamel Sr. died on July 19, 1949, also at Manchester, age 90.

Of their surviving children:

• Ernest married Julienne Cloutier and had two children, including Rita Marie (1930-92). Ernest’s date and place of death are unknown, however.

  
  

• George Joseph married Bertha Regina Brown and had two children. He died in Manchester on March 20, 1997, age 85.

  
  

• Alphonse Joseph served in the US army during World War II. He married Marion Etta Bose and died on Aug. 22, 1991 in New Hampshire, age 78.

  
  

• Louise Anne married Martin Francis Kelly and had two children. She died in Bedford, New Hampshire on July 22, 2002, age 95. She was the last of the Hamel siblings. (I could not have imagined when I visited the Comaplix cemetery for the first and only time in 2005 that a sister to Lilly and Willy had been alive so recently, although of course, she was born after they died.)

It was a bit heartening to know that although the first three children died tragically young, the rest all lived long lives.

The Comaplix cemetery was not used after 1925 and was lost by the 1960s. It was rediscovered in 1973 by Milton and Len Parent, who found the Hamel children’s wooden headboards had survived the ravages of weather and time. By the mid-1980s, however, they were fallen over and decaying. Milton, by then president of the Arrow Lakes Historical Society, took them to Nakusp where the epitaphs were translated and retouched. They were returned to the cemetery in June 1994 and affixed to trees. The society made a field trip to Comaplix in April 2005, which is the only time I have ever been to the cemetery.

UPDATE: I was amazed to get an email in February 2026 from Gary Hamel of Corvallis, Oregon. He is the son of Alphonse Joseph Hamel Jr., and therefore the nephew of Lilly and Willy Hamel.

He said his father told stories of growing up in Manchester as well as of his time during the war. But Gary and his siblings didn’t know much about their grandparents, both of whom died before any of them were born. Gary knew his grandfather was from Quebec and believed his grandmother was of Indigenous descent.

On a trip across Canada in the 1970s, his father told him some things about the family, including that Anne Hamel had been born in Winnipeg. When they reached Lake Louise, his father Alphonse mentioned that Gary’s grandfather had once worked on the railway in that area. Alphonse also said he had two siblings who died young, but Gary never got any specifics.

About 30 years ago, while Gary was working in the ski industry, he had a chance to spend about 10 days in Rossland and ski at Red Mountain. He and his wife have since been back to Rossland and Nelson a few times, including as recently as the fall of 2025. Until he came across this blog post, however, he had never heard of Comaplix and had no idea of his family ties to the West Kootenay. He’d like to visit the cemetery. He kindly shared the family photo seen below.

The Hamel family, circa 1917. Back row from left, Alphonse Sr., Frideline (Freddy), Ernie, Marie. Front row: George, Anne, Alphonse Jr. The family was living in New Hampshire at the time.

Members of the Arrow Lakes Historical Society visit the Comaplix cemetery in 2005.

— With thanks to Nathan Wilkinson for translation corrections and to Gary Hamel

Updated on Feb. 19, 2026 to add the postscript and the family photo.