From Arron's Crossing #13
"Occasionally, a wandering pedestrian happened upon us and studied with interest the old headstones at this cemetery lost in the forest."
From: Aaron's Crossing (A true ghost story) by Linda Alice Dewey
(Chapter 19 P. 243)
Sentence used with permission.
26-MAY-2007
I Died for Beauty #14
I died for beauty but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth, the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
Emily Dickinson
28-OCT-2007
Ephraim's still on this Hill? #15
In the book The Melodeon by Glendon Swathout, he told of a stange encounter he had as a boy during the depression. On Christmas eve Glendon and his grandfather were carting a old melodeon on a stoneboat pulled by an Rumley oil pull in the dead of night through a blinding snow storm. The grandfather was old and became over-come with fatigue and couldn’t go on so Glendon and the neighbor girls had to go on alone taking the organ to the church themselves.
When they reached the church the kids couldn't unload the huge instrument by themselves and the boy’s great-grandfather Ephriam (who had died in the Civil War) suddenly appeared out of the cemetery and helped them unload it.
Well, to make a long story longer some years ago I wrote this story up into a play and did it as a reading at Christmas time with a group of friends. I talked one of the friends into hiding in the basement (unknown to the others)
Pat (a guy) was to appear at the time that Ephraim's ghost was to make his appearance for added dramatic effect.
Pat came to the house that night in a rented Civil War costume complete with sword. I was quite taken aback as that wasn't planned but much appreciate.
During the appointed scene when Pat stepped through the door into the room a complete stillness engulfed the small group and several faces turned ashen as if they were indeed seeing a ghost. I even felt a cold chill. It was a momentous experience and one that we’ve talked and laughed about often.
In one scene Ephraim said to one of the little girls, (that had helped bring the organ to the church) if she told what she saw that night he would “Fetch her a swat on the backside with his sword that would make her ears fall off.” Pat made a couple of swipes with the sword swish-swish-swish.
The following summer I decided to visit the graves of Will and Ella, Ephraim and Sarah Chubb. As I mounted this hill I heard the same faint swish, swish, swish that Pat had made that night with the sword. When I would turn around the sound would stop. Going on I would hear it again. It kind of spooked me, but I went on.
At the top of the hill I stopped to gaze at their markers still there for all to see.
I took this picture of the hill last Sunday. The cemetery was on my route of Livingston County Cemeteries that I’m cataloging for the Library. I did not go to the top of the hill, but I'm sure Ephraim's still there guarding it with a swish-swish-swish of his sword.
19-MAY-2007
I heard a sign as the wind passed by #16
What the two misty streaks are is anybody's guess I just know they're not rays of light and that though I didn't even see them until I uploaded the picture for some reason I felt I needed to get out of the cemetery right then. However, that could be because there’s an enormous landfill across the road and the scent makes it seem like the smell of death is all around you there. It’s extremely revolting and I wonder how people that have houses close by live with that smell day after day.
Tombstone in the Attic #17
A few days after I cataloged Worden Cemetery and put it on line a man emailed me and said a tombstone belonging to one of the resident’s of the cemetery was in an Insurance building in Ann Arbor. Huh? He didn't know how or why it was there but said the name and dates were the same on the tombstone.(I had also used the cemetery records not just the stones) I called the company and made arrangements to go in and take pictures. They had found the tombstone in the attic of the build when they bought it. It was being used as a weight for old newspaper (the building had been a newspaper office)
After due process I contacted the cemetery committee (I knew the people in charge) but they wanted NOTHING to do with that old tombstone, which answered a question I hadn’t asked, obviously others had contacted them about it.
Bless the Beasts and the Children #18
The first time I was in this cemetery I was searching for a name on headstones and wasn't paying any attentions to dates. Suddenly I had an overwhelming feeling of loss then realized I was in an infant section; which was something I had never seen in a graveyard before. Every child in this section was two years or less old. The little squirrel was scampering around the grounds as if he was the caregiver
Photo taken in St. Mary's Cemetery Milford, Michigan
The Littlest Angel #19
When Richard Evans wrote the Christmas Box he couldn’t find anybody to publish it so he published the book himself distributing it to bookstores. By Thanksgiving all copies were sold out and the book was in great demand. A publisher picked up on Evans book and published it and it soon was on the New York best seller list.
In the book, a woman mourns the loss of her child at the base of an angel monument. Though the story is mostly fiction (Though some say it was Evans' mother) the angel monument that once existed had been destroyed. A new angel statue was commissioned by Richard Paul Evans in responds to people who were seeking a place to grieve and heal.
Many angels have been erected in cemeteries across the country in response to this book and the touching story it tells.
Photo taken in St. Mary's Cemetery Milford, Michigan
Pet Cemetery #21
This photograph was taken a long time ago with a film camera unfortunately the sign is no longer there and techniquely neither is the cemetery. But once up the hill and back into the wooded area behind the sign was an extensive pet cemetery with many grand monuments of horses, dogs and other beloved pets. Some were very extravagant many were plain but all were tributes to past pets that were deeply loved. A classmate had her horse buried there in the 50s and burying a horse was a major production.
Because of the desolate area and deep seclusion of the cemetery a gang of vandals were able to descended on it smashing and destroying all the wonderful monuments. Now it’s just a fenced and padlocked ground where nobody is allowed to go.
20-AUG-2006
The Snuffleupagus Tree #22
This big tree stands in the heart of the cemetery. It always makes me happy just to look at it.
Photo taken at Fountain Cemetery Fostoria, Ohio
The Tombstone says it all #23
I found this tombstone in Fountain Cemetery in Fostoria, Ohio (where several generations of my relatives are buried).
"It's Funny Honey" #24
This picture always makes me think of a bad joke I told at a party one night and though the joke was innocent enough it created a bizarre chain of events.
The joke was that a man was walking by a cemetery and saw a man kneeling beside a grave. "Why did you have to die! Why did you have to die!" The man wailed.
Thinking he might be able offer some comfort to the fellow the passing man walked over to him and said that he was sorry for his great loss.
The lamenting man shook his head and threw up his hands, "You don't understand," He wailed, "This was my wife's first husband!"
After I told the joke that night there were a few courteous tee-hee-hees but one man doubled over with laughter and couldn't stop. It was hysterical laughter.
Everybody gazed at him at if he had lost his senses. His wife became livid with anger. And the more she reproved him the more he laughed. It was the strangest scenario of the worst kind I had ever seen over a bad joke.
When they left that night the man was still laughing and his wife was still quarreling at him to "knock it off! Saying that the joke wasn't even funny!"
To this day I still haven't figured out what was going on especially since neither one of them had ever been married before.
Woodlawn Cemetery Leslie Michigan
