Beautiful things

I have a deep appreciation for old and beautiful things. I love antiques, old architecture, old books among other things. My most recent interest is old cemeteries. I have been driving past this Quaker Friends Meeting House for the past two years on my way to work. It is just so beautiful especially in the fall when the leaves adorn the parking lot and set it on fire. Ahhh! There is nothing more beautiful. I didn't notice until recently that there is a cememtery behind the meeting house. I have been staring at it, trying to get glimpses of it as I drive by, almost ramming the car in front of me. Then, I thought, I should really stop and walk through the cemetery. Would that be okay? Would anyone run out there and tell me to get off their property? I decided to try it anyway. So, this week I finally parked my car under a tree and walked the few feet to the most beautiful cemetery I've ever visited.

The rounded stones were bone white, some with unreadable words etched into them. Strangely in the 1800's they printed the words on the rounded top of the stone. Others were in your typical style, printed on the face of the tombstone. The ones that I was able to read fascinated me. They actually printed their age on them, in case you couldn't do the math. (Age 77)

I saw families buried together, one in which the daughter died before the parents at age 35. How sad, I thought. How very, very sad. I wondered how she died. Was it unexpected or after a long illness? But, isn't it always unexpected when the child dies before the parents? How did the parents go on?

Although we know that people lived, loved, worked and died just as we do and will, it still is amazing to me in my self aborbed little life, that people experienced life as we do. That something existed before me. That people experienced death, loss and tragedies as we have. That life is truly short, sometimes shorter than you expect.

I savored the peaceful quite of the cemetery. No one approached me and there didn't seem to be anyone around. So, perhaps I will make another visit there someday to the serenity of a church graveyard on the way to work.