Sunday Selections # 296 (cemetery photos)

Welcome back to Sunday Selections!

This once-a- week-meme was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to me, River, somewhere in your post

3. leave me a comment so that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.

4. hop on over to Elephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.

 

I usually go with a theme for my Sunday Selections and this week we have photos of a cemetery I visited a while ago.
on the map it looked like a small cemetery and being in an older part of town, I thought it might be a little quaint.
I was wrong.

I'm standing across the road from one of the walk-in entrances,

 

compared to our two largest cemeteries, the total area is smaller, a couple of suburban blocks maybe,

but the inhabitants are packed in like sardines in a can. It's a very popular local cemetery.

a little disturbing that a sign like this should be necessary.

this is a newer section, the headstones are very nicely made, most are granite, a few are marble.

but here you can see just how tightly packed in they are. You will notice each row has back to back headstones, with the grave on each side and a walkway between.

many of the plots, old as well as new ones, are multiple use; this one has a husband and wife,

while this one has three family members, different generations.

There are masses of flowers, mostly plastic, but all in good condition.

I imagine each arrangement is replaced as it deteriorates due to weather. As I stood taking photos, I noticed quite a few people visiting loved ones and placing fresh flowers to stand next to the plastic ones, graves were tidied and prayed over, with one lady sitting on a chair and talking to the person residing there.

I've never seen this many beautifully kept arrangements before, the living clearly remember and cherish the dead.

The older sections are not so well cared for, with many graves looking like this.

collapsing due to sinking soil as the coffin disintegrates, or perhaps being broken by falling headstones as in the photo above this one.

some are storm damaged, some simply no longer cared for,

many have notices attached stating that the lease on the plot has expired and remaining family members should contact the cemetery authorities. After a decent interval of time, if there has been no contact, I'm not sure what happens to them, but with limited space available, perhaps the plots are recycled. Many of the dates on these older graves go back a couple of centuries.