The Cemetery

from steam - Sunday, September 02, 2007
accessed 640 times

Stories. Surrounded by stories. Timeless, uplifting, cautionary, emotional.

Three small plaques lay in the grass.
Easy to miss if it were not for the single bunch of brilliant red roses marking the spot:

Brian R Hill 1953-1998
Mom “Tina”
Don our baby

Getting emotional

A large polished granite. Well tended. Flowers everywhere.

1903 Hans G 1941
His wife
1905 Anna R 1958
1927 Hans P 1992
A teacup on a little stand next to it with a single word “MOM”

Tears well up.

A reflective turn of phrase on a stately memorial, ANDREWS:
"-My task accomplished the long day done; let me be gathered to the quiet west, the sundown splendid and serene."
Shall I leave it a mystery, or shall I google this tender oration?

A forgotten corner, where the age shows on the many faded slabs. The stones gnawed on by dark mildew. Here lie the forgotten. No flowers fresh, nor signs of care. Two tombstones toppled and shattered:

Joseph Tucker 1876 to… -It is too cracked to read
Sarah J Beloved wife of Joseph Tucker

I am seized, I must reconnect the jigsaw of pieces, fractured and crumbled in the grass. Sections missing and corroded. It is futile. A fragment of a phrase: …..to night, to memory dear. She died May 22 1909. Nothing more may be deciphered.

A slender obelisk nearby:

Horace J Ruggles
Born July 7, 1861 Died July 1, 1984
Below, a long list:
Wife, children, grandchildren. The final listed died 1951.
You pay a price in loss when you live one hundred and twenty three years.

Damn tears.

The two I have come to pay my respects at. My beloved sisters.

Aimee Connolly
Safe with Jesus-
With us forever
June 22, 1978 –May 9, 1997


Deeply Loved
Rebecca Harmony
Connolly
In Peace and Harmony
Oct 9, 1982 – Nov 12, 2005


The floodgates have opened, the dam has run dry. Cleansed I look around.
The sunflowers around the stones are in full bloom now, and I know in this peaceful place of solitude I am surrounded by more life than many a throng.
I can go home.