Cemetery Visits

I visited Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery on Halloween Eve. It's the oldest cemetery in the city, one with some historical interest and the first I have been to here. I was interested in the history that cemeteries tell us, and in seeing how cemeteries here differ from those in New Orleans (mostly it's that they bury below ground here and New Orleans buries above). I attended in conjunction with a tour of the cemetery that was offered. So today you get some of my reflections about that visit.

Prices of graveyards have fallen sharply in recent years. New supply isn't a concern because few non military cemeteries are being developed. The American people are now weighing other options besides a formal cemetery grave, the most common being cremation and the placement of the ashes in urns the loved ones who survive keep at their own discretion. I guess foregoing burial is a good idea in that the space cemeteries take up could be better utilized by the living. But having monuments to those who have ended their lives is a good thing too. It reminds us of our mortality and makes us think about the greater issues of life, something too few people do in this world of high tech hurry and lack of substance.

The plan for me after my death is to be placed in a mausoleum in New Orleans that has a family place that was purchased by my grandfather for the family some time ago. I can wait for that, though! I prefer to continue haunting while alive than haunting from the grave. Every culture has a distinct style of cemetery and historically, the wealthy usually have the nicer crypts that we view today when we visit a cemetery. I guess the place of wealth in burial is still that way today. The poor are buried in an inconspicuous manner and the wealth opulently, the same condition as they lived when both were alive. But there are also many "common" cemeteries. In Najaf, Iraq, for instance, is the world's largest and most egalitarian cemetery. It is estimated more than half a million corpses are interred in the cemetery each year.

I won't go into the specific types of cemeteries and graves out there, but there are many variations. The Lone Fir cemetery I viewed was a standard one except for the unusual grave sites of the Russian Americans buried there. Every one of those tombstones had a photograph image of the deceased etched on the headstone (usually black stones) of each grave. That's a little too personal for me. There were quite a few of those tombstones in that cemetery and they seemed to clash with the traditional type (19th and early 20th century style) that dominated in the cemetery. Those Russian graves seemed like intruders or visitors to the place.

One other thing this cemetery had that most New Orleans cemeteries don't is the liberal use of towering trees. The very name of the cemetery 'Lone Fir' refers to the fact that in the mid 1800's it was set aside as a burial site and only one tree was allowed to remain when the land site cleared for use....the lone fir of the cemetery's name. But in the 150 years or so since the site was started there have been many huge firs and pines planted that offer a beautiful shady canopy for the cemetery. The long vertical roots of the Pacific West native tree species allow for planting of many trees there since the roots go downward and will not interfere with the grave sites.

This left me with the impression, if Lone Fir is typical of them all, that Portland cemeteries are peaceful and beautiful sites as opposed to the New Orleans style which is more eclectic, mysterious and.....in the style of New Orleans....believe it or not....humorous. Regardless, visiting a cemetery is good not so much for the body, but rather for exercising the mind and soul. The past that lays there focuses us on our own present and future which proves that burials are really more for the survivors than the interred.