June, 2023
I love a good cemetery. 🙂 That might sound odd, but I really do. I enjoy the history, the connections, the families, the individual lives, and my own ideas about who’s who. Yes, a cemetery can also mean there was sadness, and strife, and trouble. That’s true with humans. But maybe that sadness and trouble are part of what I find endearing, because those things ARE part of all human lives.
Anyway, I love a good cemetery. And I found a good cemetery on the edge of Padilla Bay, just on the northern edge of the hamlet of Bay View on this camping trip. Let me show you.
It’s small. And it felt welcoming. (click on photos to enlarge them)
As I walked around, I found numerous people who were born in the 1800s, and a few who had died in the 1800s.
Above … Guy Gorton, 1877-1907 … just 30 years old.
Above … Emily M. Gorton, 1833-1919 … grandmother. 1833 was the earliest date I found of anyone’s birth here. She lived 86 years.
Above … Charles Aetrom, 1846-1894. His birth date wasn’t that old compared to others here, but the year he died was the earliest I found. He was 48 years old when he died in 1894.
Above … Mary M. Henry, 1839-1915.
Below … Grace Anna Martin, 1895-1902 … 6 years, 6 months.
In the photo below, notice the large tree in the middle of the photo. You might be able to see a sharp little pointy thing sticking out on the left side and very near the bottom of the trunk of that tree. I didn’t notice it at first, but I sure did as I approached that tree.
It was a deer’s ear! How wonderful that someone had installed a sculpture of a reclining deer at the gravesite of their loved one.
Oh, wait, the deer’s head moved! Ha! This fellow was no sculpture; he was a real live deer just having a rest in the shade.
I walked closer, and further to the left. He watched me a bit, though not too closely. Mostly he just looked right past me. I was no threat to him.
So then it was time for me to leave. I walked back down the hill through the cemetery towards the gate. The gate was part of the black fence in the photo below, though the gate is off to the left in the photo below. I was struck by the area of “disrepair” in the photo below … weeds and bushes and even a bit of standing water. It didn’t bother me necessarily, I just noticed how very well-tended the rest of the cemetery was compared to this one corner of it.
And then, as I approached the gate … yep, here’s why the people who care for this place leave this one corner “wild”. Two young buck deer in the photo below, having a bite of lunch and not paying ANY attention to me.
And then I looked a bit to the right of those two (above) … and there were two more young bucks (below). Four of them. (And the one having a rest under the tree in the cemetery makes for five young bucks.) Two of the four that were standing and feeding down in this corner looked at me, and paid no mind, going back to their feeding, the other two of those fellows never even look up.
So, you might see why I like a good cemetery. People of all sorts hang out here … deer, lots of birds, butterflies, and bees. Occasionally I find another real live human who shares stories with me about their ancestors.
I do love a good cemetery.
On my very short drive back to my campsite, I pulled over and snapped the photo below of a portion of the small village of Bay View, along with a portion of Padilla Bay. Ah me, so peaceful.
