Jimperfections

During warmer months, I take a morning walk in the cemetery behind my house. Sometimes, I’ll take a shorter walk in the afternoon, too. The red arrows below denote my perimeter path. But most days, I’ll include the blue arrows. Doing this gets me just over two miles. You might notice a small detour from the perimeter near the bottom, middle of the map. I’ll share why this is later. In the following paragraphs I’ll show you some of the highlights of my daily walkabout.

Here is where I start. The lot next to my house is vacant. This is because the cemetery owns it. Somewhere along the line, someone cut the fence to allow for passage into and out of the cemetery. It works to many neighbors’ advantage. The large Maple tree in the distance is my second favorite tree in the cemetery. I take a picture of it every autumn as it turns a vibrant orange/red.

I head to the right, and just a little way up the road I encounter Theodore and Catherine Barbuto. I have repaired their little porcelain photos after they had come loose. I’ve done Catherine’s twice. They’ve stayed put ever since. Next to the Barbutos is Steven Mulkey. Of note here is the bottle of Budweiser that is ever present. And, while you cannot see it in the pic, The glossy black granite where his name and image are is festooned with lip prints from his widowed bride. A little creepy and weird maybe. But everyone grieves in their own way.

Next on the path is Lorraine. Or, as it states: God’s prettiest angel. Who am I to argue? I also repaired her medallion after it had fallen off.

Just up the road a bit is Ms. Aline Bell and her second husband, Charles. Poor Aline’s headstone has been knocked over twice since I’ve been here. The first time, nature was the culprit. The ground sunk beneath the base and it toppled over. After it was righted, the grounds crew of the cemetery bumped it with a piece of equipment and it fell over again. It is upright again now. What I find fascinating about her is the span of her life. When she was born, there was no such thing as an automobile. She was nearly 20 years old when the first practical car was invented and sold. She then was able to witness its evolution right up through the 1950s!

Around the corner are these two women. Anna Ferry and Nada May Dewey. You’ll notice that the name on the headstone is Klunder. This intrigued me. What is going on here? As it turns out, both women were married (at separate times) to the same man! His surname was Klunder. He is interred in this cemetery as well, just not here. I do know what section he is in, but I haven’t located him yet.

Next on the list is our favorite resident, Phillipina. When we first moved here and started roaming around the cemetery, we tried to find the oldest person interred. Not by age, but by year of birth. Phillipina was it. It is a little hard to read since her head stone has some mildew and such on it, but she was born in 1798! And while we do not know specifically when her birthday was, George Washington didn’t die until 1799. So, she was alive while our first president was still alive! And she died in 1877, quite a long life for that time. Phillipina is why there is a detour from the perimeter route. I make sure to pass by everyday and say hello.

Moving along, we encounter a former secretary of the treasury! He has quite the head stone, too!

We then come to a couple of folks who’s headstones had fallen over. I took the time to right them. And now I make sure to say hello when I walk by. First up is Helen. She had fallen backwards and was fairly easy to get back upright. A little further down the road is Willis. He fell forward. He was a little harder to get up. His stone had suctioned itself to the mud. It made quite a weird noise as it came loose, but I got it! His stone is much cleaner than his dear wife’s because he had been protected for quite a while.

I mentioned my second favorite tree in the cemetery. This would be my favorite. A huge oak tree sitting on a corner. The odd shape of it on the right is due to a couple of maple trees that were cut down a few years ago. They stunted its growth in that direction. The other small maples you see also caused it to adapt some in other directions. It is really quite a majestic tree.

Right across from the oak, on the left is this gravesite. Mrs. Nuzzo can be seen frequently, tending to it. She is meticulous. I’ve even seen her take a hose from her car, attach it to a spigot that lives a short distance away, and hose the road down in front of the area. She’ll remove most of the acorn debris that the squirrels drop from the oak. She is friendly, too. She’ll say hello if I walk by and she sees me. And while it is hard to tell, the grass in front of the headstone (and all the way to the road) seems different than all the rest. Almost like she or the family planted their own. It’s remarkably free of weeds.

We are now nearing the newer part of the cemetery. I pass by Samantha each day and always say hello. I’m drawn to her because she was so young. And in her picture, she and her dog look so happy and full of life. I don’t know exactly how she passed, but it was clearly too soon. I have seen her father there once or twice. I don’t ever bother him.

As I start zig-zagging through this part of the cemetery, I pass the Palmisanos. This one troubles me because I missed an opportunity to repair their headstone. You’ll notice the large oval carved out. That held one of those porcelain images of them. It had fallen, and for a long time, it was laying on the horizontal piece of granite. Every time I passed by, I swore that I would come back with my stuff to fix it. Then something would distract me, and I wouldn’t get to it. One day, it was gone. I looked all over and couldn’t find it. I make myself feel better by thinking that either the cemetery office retrieved it, or the family took it. Either way, I feel bad that I didn’t take care of it.

Down the road some is Gerald. I’m sure it happens more often then we think, but having your birthdate and death date be the same is weird! And on his 60th birthday exactly.

My next notable couple is the Cloughs. I saw Mr. Clough more than once visiting his wife after her passing. Then, one day, noticed his dates were now carved in the stone. It made me sad to see him grieving. But happy when I saw they were now back together.

Here we have another meticulously groomed gravesite. I believe this would be a son that takes care of this one. I like it for a very unique reason. That would be the color and texture of the granite. It reminds me of the sausage my grandfather would make, season and stuff into casings by hand. It kind of had this look to it, especially the hot sausage he would produce. the pictures don’t do it any justice, however. It is much more vibrant in person.

I don’t always pass by this next one, but I always see it. It is the final resting place of a sheriff’s deputy that was gunned down along with a city policeman by a dumbass that felt he needed to go out in a blaze of glory. I happened upon the funeral on my walk one afternoon. I’ve never seen so many cars and people in there before. Police, sheriffs, fire fighters and EMTs were all in attendance, along with family and friends. There was even a drone taking video of the proceedings. I kept my distance.

Now we come across one that makes me a little happy. I’m not sure if Mr. or Mrs. was the car fan. But some family member decided to leave a couple of car models on the headstone. The one on the right is a Lamborghini Veneno. On the left is a Lego Speed Champions McLaren Senna, complete with minifig!

A short distance away is the grave of Leonard Greenia. I really like the font choice on this headstone. Very different than usual. I enjoy different.

Down the line, we come by another spot where I saw the husband frequently visiting his wife, and eventually saw that he joined her.

I’m now finishing my zig-zagging and starting my way back toward home. The impressive thing here is that while there are plenty of families that have two or even three consecutive plots with a couple per plot, this family has five in a row with ten people included! And even more impressive is that they each have a different headstone.

Here is a real mystery. The Orsos, Colona and Gaetano. They are not next to each other like most couples. Gaetano passed first. Was it sudden? Did they only have the money for one plot at the time? But they have the same style headstone. What’s up there? I may never know.

As I get close to home, we pass another one that troubles me. I repaired Mary’s picture when I saw it was falling off. At the time, Sebastiano and Frank were both there and seemed solid. I would glance over daily to see them all still there. One day, all three were present. The next day, Sebastiano was gone. I figured that since he was there the day before, he must be in the grass or somewhere close by. I looked all over. He disappeared. I felt terrible. If I knew he was loose, I would have fixed his picture, too.

I’m nearly home now. But there is still one more that I almost always stop at. Rosemary has this stuffed, plush Smurf sitting on her headstone. The grounds keepers are respectful of it. But it almost always falls over and off the base. So, each day, I pause and set him back in place.

Now, we are back where I started. I showed you the entrance, so now you can see it from the other side.

We’re not done though! There are a couple of interesting things both on and off my usual path that I want to show you. First, as you wander about, you will see these little, square stones with a letter carved in the top. It took me bit, but I figured out what they were for. In earlier times, a family would purchase a large plot. One that would contain four, six, eight or more family members. They marked the perimeter of their plot with these little stones with the first letter of their surname on them. The more affluent would have a large family headstone placed in the center, and smaller stones for each member interred. It is rare to see all four in place today.

This headstone is really neat. It has a bespoke flower pot on top. It has not held flowers since I’ve been walking here.

Lastly, there is a large mausoleum on site. But there are many individual mausoleums as well. Some for only one person, others for two or more family members. This one, however, takes the cake. It is way over the top.

There you have it. A journey around the cemetery. This was merely a taste. I am always finding interesting things as I walk around. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, I’d be happy to take a walk with you and show you these things (and more) personally!