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| Shamus adding the finishing touches to his apple |
Halifax part 2: (click on the photos to enlarge and view details)
On Sunday morning we met Brenda's aunt Ange for breakfast before dropping her off at church. We went to Streak and Stein and had a nice meal and a lovely chat.
Before we dropped her off at church, we visited a cemetery that has the graves of the some of the victims of the Titanic sinking.
There are row upon row of stones that initially only contained the date of death and a number.
Over time the victims have been identified and some of the families have chosen to add the name or a new grave marker.
In come cases, in spite of the person being identified, there still remains no name. The option to add the name was strictly at the families' doing so possibly in some cases there is no family remaining to do that.
It was quite a moving experience to walk through the rows in the sunshine and view the graves of those lost, especially those of young sailors and in some cases, whole families. It started me thinking.
Today so many people opt for cremation instead of burial (me included) and I know this is probably the most environmentally friendly option, rather than taking up floor space in a cemetery somewhere. But on the other hand, once you're gone, you're really gone with no physical record that you were ever here
I know there's a paper trail to say that you lived, got married, died, etc but nothing tangible. It brought to mind a conversation we had in the car many years ago when Patti was still in school. We were talking about cremation and after thinking about it her question was "But where do people go to miss you?" We laughed and talked about the memories still being alive but now I wonder if she had a valid point?
All those people, in that cemetery, were someone's family member. Even if they only have a number, there is still something that marks the fact that they were here. Something to think about.
I just had to comment on your blog this morning.
ReplyDeleteJames was looking through some of the papers and pictures that came from Lynne's mom, Joyce's house. In it, he came across some photos of a young soldier in WW1. We were able to determine after some investigating, that it was his great, great uncle in the photo, and he was a gunner. We also learned that his great, great grandfather, who was also named James, fought in the war. Amongst the papers, james found burial records for these 2 men, and they were apparently buried in Woodlawn cemetary in guelph.
On remembrance day this year, after we went to the service at the Sleeman centre, we all drove up to the cemetary, and spent time traipsing around the cemetary looking for James McKen and his brother Robert (the one in the photo). The kids were very excited when we actually found the right headstones, and also found a couple of other McKen's that we were able to place on the family tree after a bit more research. James found this all very interesting, and your blog made me think how funny it is that 50 years later, people who never met you would find it interesting to stand at your grave and wonder about your life. So I know what you mean- cremation might be the easiest thing to do, but I can see the appeal of a permanent burial place.