I have a strange relationship with cemeteries and graveyards. When I myself am gone my only memorial will be some random electronic musings and photos saved on archived websites. I want nothing more. I have visited too many neglected prairie cemeteries. Without care and attention even 50-year old graves are dug up by prairie gophers and badgers. Softer granite and marble soon becomes unreadable. Metal markers seem to do even worse.
In my family this seems to be the prevailing sentiment. There is no marker for my mother nor father. Any grave markers for my family on the west coast are well hidden or distant.
If people are reluctant to visit me when I am alive then I could hardly expect them to gather around my memorial when I am dead.
But when people have gone to the effort of getting a memorial then I think that I — along with other family members — should make an occasional visit. I enjoy visiting lonely cemeteries and taking photos. It is comforting to think that one or two people might think of me in the decades after I am gone.
But when people have gone to the effort of getting a memorial then I think that I — along with other family members — should make an occasional visit. I enjoy visiting lonely cemeteries and taking photos. It is comforting to think that one or two people might think of me in the decades after I am gone.
This was not my first visit to Woodlawn but it was my first visit to the grave of my late mother's sister Jean Margaret Gibson. Jeannie died quite young. She was born July 21, 1926 in South Carolina. That was my mother Ruth's third birthday. The whole Gibson family spent several years living the good life in North and South Carolina before returning to Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 1929.
Apparently she had been a sickly child. Jeannie died November 29, 1936 in Saskatoon. It was only recently that I realized her family had provided a fine grave marker. She is buried not among family but among other people who happened to die in the same year.
Apparently she had been a sickly child. Jeannie died November 29, 1936 in Saskatoon. It was only recently that I realized her family had provided a fine grave marker. She is buried not among family but among other people who happened to die in the same year.
In 1941 my grandfather gathered up his family and moved to Langley, British Columbia. As far as I know none of them ever returned to Saskatchewan even for a visit. Other than casual passers-by and maintenance people, I was probably the visitor to this grave in eighty years.
Plot 79-L083-S1/2 Woodlawn Cemetery, Saskatoon
1 comment:
This is a nice remembrance for our Auntie Jeannie. Although she died long before I was born, our mom spoke so lovingly of her little sister that I feel I knew her. Thanks for the post Gregory.
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