Hallowe'en + graveyards

[sharonmx5]

You are right, of course, Viktoria.  In my local municipal old cemetery I think a high proportion of the graves have unfortunately been long forgotten.  The saddest words are "Gone but not forgotten".

I shall continue to visit such a peaceful place, a little less timidly now.

[ann255]

.They were meant to be looked at and read and in that way the people buried there are for a short moment remembered.

What a lovely way to put it Viktoria. I watched a programme last night I had recorded, (Secret Treasures with Michael Bourke I think it was called) A man had found a mourning ring inscribed with the names of a Mary and Sarah........dated 1642.  He was intrigued and researched the names and found they had lived just a few miles away and the man had been I believe incumbrent of the local church.  He then spent hours going through the old parish registers and found the entries:  Sarah a  daughter of Thomas and Mary baptised on 7th, and the next entry burials of Mary his wife, and Sarah his daughter on the 8th.  For a window of time this tragic story and the people involved were remembered over 300 years later.

[Viktoria]

 Yes, I saw that programme and wondered whoever had lost such a meaningful  item.
 Had her husband worn it? How soon was it lost?--- it looked pretty new .
 It seemed to have a simply cut diamond in it as well as the names but that does not preclude its being a man`s ring. The clergyman husband seems the most likely candidate.
It would be doubly sad if it was lost very soon after the deaths, imagine the heartache when it was realised it had gone.
 So many cases like that even in living memory (just), before it was unusual for anyone other than a doctor  or trained midwife to deliver babies-- except in emergencies of course.
 I admire the person who found it for his strenuous efforts to find out about the ring.
                                                 Cheerio, Viktoria.

[spandy]

I worked as groundskeeper in a small rural cemetary and found much more than
gravestones. Often the commemorative plantings have over the years spread to
become large patches of regularly shorn yarrow, lilacs (2" tall), irises, and dianthus.
This is a pioneer cemetary in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario & still active.
Other cemetaries are like arboretums with fabulous old trees.
Great places to visit.

[Meezer]

We have a little country churchyard just down the lane with a great many of the graves with no one left to remember those buried there now. One or two gravestones have so many family names on (particularly young children) that you wonder who was left to bury them. It's a very peaceful place but I made the decision a while ago that I would like to be burnt and scattered when my time comes as I think it's so sad when graves become neglected.