Today I visited a 'paupers grave'

[Earth_First]

A dirty little secret of the County of Monroe.

I couldn't believe what I saw!

Driving in, among the wrought iron gates, perfectly aligned headstones and manicured lawn, I was not prepared for what we came upon.

In the very rear of the final resting place for these souls, whom I am sure were perfectly decent individuals is a field.

In this field are row after row of tightly packed plastic discs and field stones, often with just a number on them, a dozen of them veterans.

The conditions of this burial site are deplorable.

The lawn is hardly a lawn.

Hastily backfilled plots with debris break the surface of the earth, the rows for future plots are marked off with broken golf clubs, tree limbs, broken shovel handles.

Along three rows is a deep tractor rut which runs directly over many plots and one of the four headstones that have been placed by the beloved mortals who were able to afford a burial marker.

The drainage in one location holds water.

I do not want to prorate the contribution of one individual over another, but some of these souls are effin veterans...

Why does the American Legion not venture to the rear of this place to set flags on Veteran's Day?!

I'm disgusted that this is how the final resting place of these folks is treated with such disregard only because they were poor or died alone...

[appleannie1]

1. There are thousands of souls buried in unmarked graves in fields behind old sanitariums and poor

houses in this country. We once laid a wreath beneath a tree in one such spot because not one grave had a marker of any sort. And one such spot in Western Pa, a company bought the ground and built a huge office complex over what had been a cemetery.

[roguevalley]

11. given that your area buries people they need to do it right. Take pictures and take them to the

media. I am going to be cremated. My parents and dogs are and they are with me in this house until its my time. Show the media. There will be something done.

[banned from Kos]

2. Why bury paupers? This question has never occured to me.

I would prefer cremation.

[HereSince1628]

9. So they can end up in paint cans like these in a mental hospital basement?

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=BB&Date=20110201&Category=NEWS0107&ArtNo=102010376&Ref=AR&MaxW=321

Cremation is OK, but I'm not sure it solves the problem of how to dispose of poor people's remains with dignity. Those abandoned in life are very likely to end up abandoned in death. Dumping ashes of persons with no known relatives in a landfill is almost too tempting to institutions.

[freshwest]

3. I've seen these, too. But the ones I saw were in cemeteries that were so overgrown, the trees were..

Even growing out of the center of the expensive plots and the forest had taken over. Quite touching to see tiny cradles of marbles, with tiny headstones for babies that were less than a year old but I believe such things are out of fashion.

After a while, except when there are adequate numbers of faithful descendents caring enough to keep up grave sites, they end up the same. I remember seeing the hastily dug and finished pauper's section in such disregarded places. Cemeteries and the remains they were created to care for are always moved aside, emptied or just plain paved over eventually.

At least they were buried, at one time I went to the city landfill where I lived and found the pound was discarding truckloads of dogs, all looked to have been fine specimens of their different breeds and healthy, all put killed by vacuuming the air out of the killing places, allegedly.

There is little respect for the living, much less for the dead. Perhaps some group that cares about the homeless and those without families who will volunteer to take care of that place you saw.

Or do you thing, that perhaps it was just due to the time of year, that the ground was so greatly disturbed?

[RKP5637]

5. Your comment pretty well sums it up, "There is little respect for the living, much less

for the dead." It's really a sad state of affairs. Often I'm not sure if it's just a sign of the times, or in fact the future we all face.

[freshwest]

7. Only the heart matters in the long run. Our lives are short.

[RKP5637]

10. Aren't they ... I was thinking the other day, often it takes one to about 30 to get their lives

running along OK, if lucky, then about 30 years go by quickly and one suddenly finds themselves in their 60's one day. It's quick, very quick, and in the scheme of things not even a blip on the time line. I posted back to the OP a video on You Tube (see my post #8). To me, the video pretty much summarizes what you were saying in your post #3.

[originalpckelly]

4. Perhaps we should care more about the living than the dead.

And maybe there would be fewer paupers in life, rather than death, eh?

[freshwest]

6. Excellent point!

[RKP5637]

8. It's sad, isn't it ... I've seen cemetaries like this before, sadlly one of many. Your posting

intrigued me, I noticed the below on You Tube. It's supposed to be the Old St. Paul Cemetery in Hamblin County, Tennessee, said to stretch on for acres in the woods and into unmarked graves. I guess it boils down sadly to money, who is going to maintain the cemeteries, people long deceased as well as relatives, abandoned periods of time.

[Herlong]

12. Sometimes you must let the poets speak for you.

Dead long dead long dead,
My heart is a handful of dust,
The wheels go over my bead,
My bones are shaken with pain,
Into a shallow grave their thrust,
Only a yard beneath the street,
And the hooves of the horses beat beat,
The hooves of the horses beat,
Beat into my skull, into my brain.

There's never an end to the stream of passing feet,
Driving, hurrying, marrying, burying,
Clammer and rumbles, and ringing and clatter,
And here beneath it's all as bad,
For I thought the dead had peace but,
Well it is not so,
To have no peace in the grave,
Is that not sad?

Up and down and to and fro,
Ever about me the dead men go,
To hear a dead man chatter,
Is enough to drive one mad,
It's enough to drive one mad,
It's enough to drive me mad.

It's enough to drive one mad,
It's enough to drive one mad.



And then in time, may you speak for them. God willing.

[RKP5637]

13. Yes ... so very true! n/t

[freshwest]

14. Thanks so beautiful! More sentiment, more time to remember in the past. Things are going faster.

That is exactly like what I've seen, both in the Cascades where you see the many graves and loving words of those who were killed in mining accidents. They were loved at one time, but the families have moved on, forgotten their history.

The one that first brought this to my mind was one in an urban area, overtaken by trees, and frequented by hoboes sleeping in the leaves. The kind of places that teenagers with curiousity go to see and we didn't do any mischief.

We were brought up with superstitions that made our hearts catch, seeing the trees that had grown through what must have been the coffins below, and seeing where the ground had gone away on the sides, revealing the concrete. We thought about who was there, their families, and all of them gone. Mother Nature is much kinder than people, to take them back to herself.

In another one I was saw in west Texas, with the oldest graves of settler killed by Indians. Then the almost all the rest of the cemetery full of people of many different ages who all passed during the years of the Spanish flu, dying within weeks of each other. It wiped out the entire community, so that it no longer existed and only a few descendents remained in the area to do anything about it. Churches and all the old businesses gone, ghost towns.

But that was a beautiful area there in where the video was, despite the people being gone, it was lovely. And I loved the music as well, but can't find what piece that was from the description.

I think the old saying, 'in a hundred years, none of this will be remembered.' Our passions, our loves and fears, do carry on through those we have birthed and loved, if possible. So we are getting down to the basics now.

Still, seeing that video and nature taking over is a good thing, a healing thing. Thanks again.