Sitting In Another Cemetery
[Me gazing at the soccer game. Photo credit: Mariam Voutsis]
You, my readers, may think I’m a bit morose and morbid. My last post was about Evergreen Cemetery, in my home town of Owego, NY. But, if you think that I am very dark, you’re wrong. Yes, I have a strong nostalgic mind. But today I had a job to do. I’m a volunteer photographer for Find-A-Grave.com.
That means that I get requests from people from far off USA, hoping somebody like me would take the time to go out to a country cemetery and photograph the gravestone of ‘Aunt Martha’. Whatever you may think, I consider it a great service to fulfill these requests. (I get no monetary reward, nor would I accept one.) I’m satisfied with the thank-you emails.
But, today. Today I had some severe lower back pain. It was difficult to walk the small churchyard.
I took a rest and sat on a boulder that was actually a headstone. I looked over at a nearby athletic field where Paul Smiths College was playing soccer.
I heard the shouts, the goals, the cheers and the young men yelling and encouraging. This is something I did in my youth.
I sat feeling very isolated. I couldn’t play that game ever again. It’s a strange and powerful thought when you sit in a churchyard.
I kicked back a few soccer balls that had been hit into the cemetery. I could still do something with my legs!
But my back still hurt and I heard a shout from Mariam. She had found some memorial we had long searched for.
Now I sit in our screen-in porch and listen the the howling wind. Our squash is in the oven. Summer is ended and I must put the plexiglass panels back into place.
Time flies like the wind.
