Mowing at the Cemetery!

Well, it was a beautiful Spring day here in the Lehigh Valley, and I did what I needed to do, and hadn't done since November 4th. I mowed most of Section N at Fairview Cemetery. Those of you who followed my old Lehigh Valley POV blog know that this is the family plot of my wife's family.

Fairview was founded in the 1820's and many of Allentown's most famous are buried there, including three Revolutionary War Veterans, and the Commanding General of Pennsylvania's units, General James Craig. He was in his late 80s, btw, when he died.

Anyhow, dead people don't complain about Charity. Nobody complains about my weed whacking or whose graves I didn't get too. This place is 26 acres, and has a budget of $12,ooo for maintenance. FOR THE YEAR. It had a major embezzlement a decade ago, and some places are in disrepair. The owner of the Funeral home on the property is not responsible for the upkeep, but does what he can with what he has, managing to keep the access roads clear and mowing what he can. He has thanked me many times for what I, and a few other volunteers do.

So on a beautiful sunny, late April day, I was out in the solitude of a beautiful cemetery, giving three hours of my time to work in section N and part of neighboring section S. Nobody complained about how I cut the grass, or the pattern I did it in. I picked up the beer bottles/cans, and food wrappers left by the gang bangers who hang out in there at night, and made a list of gravestones that they knocked over and I need to get help to move back.

I don't get overwhelmed by the size of the task, I just take it one thing, one section at a time. I just wish they would quit destroying the emblems marking all the Veteran's graves. As A veteran, that is the one thing that gets me mad. Oh well.