Drive and drive I did.
I left the city and went out to St. Francis Xavier to visit the grave of a girl from my homeroom in school who died when I was in Grade 9 (our homerooms were a mixture of grades 9 through 12). I've always wanted to visit that churchyard, given that I attended that church for several years in my teenage days, but never have until today. I used to glance at the graves behind the church as I would go in for mass and be totally freaked out about the fact that I knew someone in that graveyard. Oh, the nightmares I used to have about that whole thing. It's so sad now (as it was then) thinking that she and her boyfriend are laying there, forever 16, while most everyone else she knew have been able to live at least half a life. She never really got one, did she? And it's not a very nice graveyard, all swampy and almost deserted looking. Not well kept.
Then I visited the White Horse statue, just for old times sake.
Then I went down and visited where I used to live, which has become a development with about 10 lots on it. Nice houses they've built. It's impossible to recognize it for what it used to be, except for all the trees and the gravel road into the river loop.
Then I was driving back to Winnipeg, and I decided to take the two hour drive back out west and visit the graves of my great-grand parents and my grand-parents at Dunrea, just west of Ninette, Manitoba. Nice drive (especially in my car), and little traffic. Last time I went out there two years ago I couldn't find the graves of my grandparents, even though I was actually at my grandmother's funeral back in 1976 (in fact, I was a pallbearer). I found it this time, but I can see why I missed it last time. It's a very unimpressive stone, flat in the ground. I cleaned all the grass clippings off it, so I could actually read their names. And there's a bunch of fresh soil over the graves, which made me more than a little curious.
And then I ate a sub in my car at the gates of the cemetary, went back and tapped each headstone again, and drove back home.
And tomorrow is the last day of my two week vacation. Sigh.
I left the city and went out to St. Francis Xavier to visit the grave of a girl from my homeroom in school who died when I was in Grade 9 (our homerooms were a mixture of grades 9 through 12). I've always wanted to visit that churchyard, given that I attended that church for several years in my teenage days, but never have until today. I used to glance at the graves behind the church as I would go in for mass and be totally freaked out about the fact that I knew someone in that graveyard. Oh, the nightmares I used to have about that whole thing. It's so sad now (as it was then) thinking that she and her boyfriend are laying there, forever 16, while most everyone else she knew have been able to live at least half a life. She never really got one, did she? And it's not a very nice graveyard, all swampy and almost deserted looking. Not well kept.
Then I visited the White Horse statue, just for old times sake.
Then I went down and visited where I used to live, which has become a development with about 10 lots on it. Nice houses they've built. It's impossible to recognize it for what it used to be, except for all the trees and the gravel road into the river loop.
Then I was driving back to Winnipeg, and I decided to take the two hour drive back out west and visit the graves of my great-grand parents and my grand-parents at Dunrea, just west of Ninette, Manitoba. Nice drive (especially in my car), and little traffic. Last time I went out there two years ago I couldn't find the graves of my grandparents, even though I was actually at my grandmother's funeral back in 1976 (in fact, I was a pallbearer). I found it this time, but I can see why I missed it last time. It's a very unimpressive stone, flat in the ground. I cleaned all the grass clippings off it, so I could actually read their names. And there's a bunch of fresh soil over the graves, which made me more than a little curious.
And then I ate a sub in my car at the gates of the cemetary, went back and tapped each headstone again, and drove back home.
And tomorrow is the last day of my two week vacation. Sigh.
heterochromia:
I like your cemetary photos!
nikonjustice:
Dunrea eh? That's interesting. I grew up in Killarney, so I'm pretty familiar with that area.