I'm not really sure why, but I am totally attracted to cemeteries. In thinking about it, I can trace back my fascination to around 1974. I was living in upstate New York in a big, old Victorian house that was owned by the Hazelton's; the town's lumber company magnate and family. Seems the matriarch of the family was very old and living with one of her sons, so the house was rented out totally furnished. It was an amazing place! Across the road from a river, it had a wrap-around porch, two living rooms, and it was heated by a wood-burning stove. I only lived there for a couple of months but it was a great time. It was fall, and the leaves changing in the Adirondack Mountains are something to behold. Some days, I would ride a bike into town and after laboring up a steep hill there was a small graveyard. I remember that walking through there was a little like walking through history. You could see when some epidemic struck and many children died around the same time. Whole families were lain to rest together. There were stories told just in the looking. One thing that struck me the most though was a gravestone that read this:
"As you are now I once was,
As I am now, you soon shall be,
Prepare for Death, and follow me!
I have never forgotten those words and how they affected me. I thought about who that person was, was he a curmudgeon or a funny-guy? Was he afraid of death or comfortable with it? And, how should we prepare for death?
That was the beginning of my interest and attraction to cemeteries. I went to Canada the summer before sophomore year in college, and found a spot north of Toronto which was an "Indian" graveyard. There, the people were buried above ground with mounds covering them. The feeling there was quite different.
When my son was in about 5th grade, I learned to rollerblade so we had an activity we could enjoy together, and where did I learn? Altenheim Cemetery in River Forest. It was surrounded by the el train on Harlem to the east, the expressway on the south and the river on the west. We spent so many days skating up and down those aisles. To me, it was fun but also very peaceful. We would hug trees and feel their energy. He even had a bench under one tree where he would go for inspiration; it was his poetry-writing phase. Golden memories were formed at that cemetery.
Forest Home cemetery in Forest Park has a celebrated "Cemetery Walk" in October every year, where they have community members dress up and act like the people buried there. I've been to that several times. I witnessed Ernest Hemingway's mother talking about the young Ernest, along with other notables. I remember there was a piano out there one year for the evangelist who preceded Billy Graham, (Billy Sunday) to do his sermon to. Very interesting history with Emma Goldman and the Haymarket Martyrs Monument there also.
I took my son to Europe for his high school graduation present. We spent Christmas Day 2004 in Pere Lachaise Cemetery. He wanted to see Jim Morrison's grave, and of course, we took photos. I was amazed by the number of well-known people there; some, like Orson Welles, had remarkable gravestones. It was an awesome day.
When my son lived in Seattle, we went to the cemetery there to visit Jimmy Hendrix and unbeknownst to us, Bruce Lee had a huge area of gardens and a pond that we took photos of.
This year, after taking a Chicago History class, I learned about Oak Woods Cemetery; the only cemetery north of the Mason-Dixon line to hold Confederate soldiers. When we went there we found cannons and memorials to the six thousand Confederate soldiers, prisioners of war who died at Camp Douglas, all buried together beneath a towering monument. We found the gravesites of Mayor Harold Washington, Jesse Owens and Enrico Fermi, but even bigger and more ostentatious is a ridiculously huge monument Roland Burris has erected for himself. A fool and egotist throughout eternity I guess.
I've been to Graceland in the past and seen the Potter Palmers and Marshall Fields' showing off their opulence even in death, though I find the island devoted to Daniel Burnham a fitting tribute.
Just the other day, I turned into Mount Olive Cemetery and drove around. I noted some awesome trees and the sense of peace on a beautiful afternoon. I spotted a gravestone of a baby who lived only 13 days... makes me wonder about life.
I've always been a tree lover, so I question if it's the trees at cemeteries that attract me, or the peaceful feeling I get, but I am definitely attracted to these spots; more now than ever.
I have some cemetery shots up on Flickr if you're interested:
