When I visited the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery, I discovered there are actually two separate cemeteries enclosed within one wall. The City Cemetery was established in 1844. The original iron and stone entrance gate is no longer used and entrance is through the adjoining Confederate Cemetery. Oh that my visit was at a time when digital cameras were in existence. Worrying about the amount of 35mm film I had with me, I only shot a few frames. There are so many spectacular memorials, I wish I had shot more . . .
I noticed some small headstones that were crumbling and sinking into the ground - Howison Beale was one of the surnames. Remarkably, I came across a large memorial which was intended to preserve details of the family graves. A line across the bottom of the memorial records: "This stone is erected by their son, Frank D Beale to preserve the inscriptions of the old gravestones now mouldering nearby 1959."
Even graveyards, places of remembering, slowly fade into oblivion and are forgotten... unless someone keeps the memory alive with an extraordinary effort like this. I hear you loud and clear about digital cameras versus the old constraints of film...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Owen. Great bit of work by Mr Beale. I can remember the postal service being suspended in the 1991 Gulf War. I then had to carry with me 100 rolls of exposed colour transparency film . . . worry, worry, worry! Memory cards are so much smaller.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like they are being consumed by the earth. I guess they are.
ReplyDeleteA sort of sinking feeling, Sharon!
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