more on Sweet William ...

In a couple of recent posts I told you the story of my friend Julie's desire to find the headstone of a child named William. Julie used to live in Halifax and would visit his grave but had forgotten his last name.  It was important to her and so I set out to find William.  After a couple of visits to the cemetary I did find his headstone and blogged about it.

William was only six years old when he died of scarlet fever. 

The post deeply touched my cousin Carol.  She wrote me to tell me that it had made her cry.  I'd like to say it was my wonderful choice of words and images that moved her to tears, but it was something else.

When Carol was 10 or 11, she learned that she had a brother who had died shortly after birth.  Her mom rarely spoke of the baby she had lost, but Carol knew his name was Ian.  
My post got her thinking about her "older" brother whose life had been so short.  She wondered where he was buried and  went looking for his headstone.

After some sleuthing she did find him...

and learned something new...

His first name wasn't Ian.

It was William.

In loving memory of William Ian Wilson

July 20, 1943 - July 24, 1943

Though death divides

Fond memory clings

I hab a code ...

Rads !

I hab a code.

I egg all ober.

I god boogers ad snibbles.

I had sub sube ad toast to eed.

Dow I'b dired. 

I'b go-id bag do bed.

dight. 

The Old Burying Ground

Most Halifax travel guides include The Old Burying Ground on their "must see" list.

Located on Barrington Street in downtown Halifax, The Old Burying Ground stands as a testimony to Halifax's early days.   Founded in 1749, the same year as the settlement, it was Halifax's first and only burying ground.

The entrance is dominated by a rare pre-Confederation  memorial to the 1853 – 1856 Crimean War.



As well as headstones there are footstones, and tablestones in this cemetary.  Footstones are smaller than headstones and may be very brief while tablestones were created for more important folk and could include larger inscriptions.

The Burying Ground was closed to new burials in 1844. Fenced and landscaped in the 1860s, it was restored as a park and outdoor museum in 1990-1991. Over 12,000 souls are buried here, even though only about 1,200 markers remain.

Two famous people buried here are Captain Lawerence of the USS Chesapeake who is more famous in the US for his "Don't give up the ship" cry, uttered just before he gave up his ship.  And a British general who was responsible for burning down Washington DC during the War of 1812.  

  

A plaque near the entrance explains:

"The Old Burying Ground constitutes a unique concentration of gravestone art. A rich variety of styles, poignant images and carving skills is reflected in these old stones. The winged skulls and the winged heads, or soul effigies, are exceptional."

The images or symbols can be a clue to age.  Older stones show symbols of death -- stylized winged skulls ("death-heads") or winged angels (soul effigies).



These gravestones were all carved by hand, using chisels and wooden mallets. Many of the old slate stones were quarried and carved around Massachusetts Bay and shipped to Halifax before the American Revolution. By the 1770's local stone carvers were making gravestones from a poorer quality local slate (or "ironstone'). As a result, some of the older headstones are in better condition than the more recent ones.

In the early 1800's the images gradually changed from representations of death to those of bereavement -- funerary urns, lamps (of life, extinguished), and sometimes springs of willow (weeping). 

  


 Though the explanation I found referred to the extinguished lamps (of life), I kept finding images that clearly showed a flame still coming from the lamp as the above images show.

 Crossed bones represent death while the skull with the crown, resurrection, while an hourglass represents time.

This large tablestone once had carvings on its four enclosed sides, but only two remain.  The fascinating image below is from one end of the monument.

 

I think it's depicting the  resurected person (wearing the crown) rising from his grave to the trumpeting of an angel.  And of course, there's an hourglass ...

Wandering among the headstone the lead in from a TV soap opera kept looping through my mind:

"Like the sands through an hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives".

Hope for Wildlife Society

The Hope for Wildlife Society is a wildlife rescue organization in Nova Scotia.  It is run by its founder Hope Swinimer and a group of dedicated volunteers. 

Located about 30 minutes from Halifax, earlier this summer it held an open house which I visited with friends Amy and Mickie.

As the only wildlife rescue organization in Nova Scotia it takes in all injured critters that are brought in.  That meant that in the spring they had a shit load of raccoons !   

(click on the upper shot and count the 'coons on the ledge)

 But they also have deer, eagles, owls, turtles, snakes and many others as listed on the intake chart below.

For the last year their dedicated efforts have been recorded for a documentary TV series on the Oasis Channel.(An HD Nature Channel).  The series will be coming out on DVD in the future.

An Oasis film crew was there recording the Open House.  Here they are filming Hope.  

To raise funds there were auctions, both silent and live, a flea market, sales of art and a couple of other intriguing ideas.

There was a jail.  For a loonie you could have someone put in the jail.  For a loonie they could bail themselves out.  Or ... they could have you put in jail with them.  So you can just imagine how the three of us ended up behind bars.

There was a new slant on the ol' "Cow Poop Bingo" game.  In that game, a field is divided into marked Bingo grids and players bet where the cow will poop. In this case they had a guinea pig in a big room.  Drat !   I didn't win.

The turn out for the Open House was enormous as it was a warm sunny day.  It raised funds and awareness for a very worthy cause.

And it was a wonderful afternoon spent with friends.

 If you're interested in learning more about the Hope for Wildlife Society you can follow the links below:

The Hope for Wildlife Society site:  http://web.me.com/isaiah53.6/hope/home.html

The Hope for Wildlife Society OASIS HD TV site:  http://www.oasishd.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=226-arthopeforwildlife&catid=11&joscclean=1&comment_id=151&Itemid=1

Sweet William ...

I ended up going back twice to the cemetary looking for William.

I wandered the rows, reading headstones and thinking about these people who once walked the streets of Halifax and breathed the air I am breathing now.

I was reminded not only of my own mortality but also of the fact that I am vibrantly alive at this moment and that's all any of us has.  This moment.

But to die before you've even had a chance to live is heartbreaking...

Rock a bye baby on the tree top,

When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,

And down will come baby, cradle and all.

Transcending all boundaries until we meet again.

And in the middle of a row toward the back of the cemetary, dwarfed by stately monuments I found William ...

William was 6 years old when he died of Small Pox in 1935.

I know that life is not about fairness. 

But, it's still not fair.   I'm sorry William that you did not have more moments.

The leaves are turning ?!?

The other day at Hartlen Point I noticed that the leaves on the bushes and trees were brown and wrinkled.

I thought, "do the leaves change THAT fast here?".  Then I remembered that I hadn't seen any brown trees or bushes in my neighourhood.

Hmmmmm.  A puzzler.

Then as I walked along the cliff I found another oddity.

The cliff edge had been flipped back on itself.  What you see is the "after" (above) and I think the "before" would look like the shot below.

So I pondered on the brown leaves and flipped back sod and came up with EARL !   Earl was the Category 1 hurricane that visited us two weeks ago.

Of course !  Salt spray fired inland with great power and hence the brown leaves were the result of "salt burn".   And the flipped back sod is a concrete demonstration of the amazing power of the wind. 

 This tangled collection of lobster traps were blown up by Earl.

 Naughty Earl !

Looking for William

My recent cemetary post elicited a note from my friend Julie who used to live in Halifax.  She used to visit  the children's section of Holy Cross Cemetary adjacent to the "Church that was built in one day".  She said the grave of a child named William was marked by a small white tile mosaic stone and she asked if I could find the stone to learn William's full name.

So I went looking for William.

The chapel was built in one day by 1,800 volunteers which was an amazing feat.. 

I found the children's section of the cemetary.  It lay to the left, separated from the rest of the cemetary by a roadway.

How sad that a church would deem innocent children who are not baptised not to be worthy of being buried with their parents. 

Many stones were too worn to read.  Others had touching understated messages like  "Gone too soon" which was on the stone of a baby who lived barely a month.

I walked between the rows still searching for William but could not find him. 

  

 But I'll go back again to look  for William and ponder these young lives cut short.

Chandler goes paddling ...

Sometimes I feel sorry for Chandler.  He's often the "odd man out".   Wendy and Trey chase balls together and Buffy and Sooki  play with each other which often leaves Chandler on his own.   

But there is one area where he gets singled out for special treatment.

Chandler goes kayaking !

Chandler loves to go kayaking.

He sits on the front of my kayak sniffing the air.  So many different things he must be smelling.  His ears occassionally blow back in the breeze.  He's very relaxed and will occassionally stand up.  He's been known to step off the kayak as if he could walk on water.  He can't.  Hence the harness so I can haul him back up.

At one end of the island we discovered the remains of what must have been a very large dock.

We paddled down the back side of the island and I beached the kayak so Chandler could jump off and have a pee.  I paddled slowly up the shoreline with him following along.  After a bit he waded out and hopped back on.

I wanted to explore more but unfortunately we'd set out rather late.  I had to paddle hard and we got back to Fisherman's Cove just as the sun was setting.

 It was a nice couple of hours spent with a good friend.

I really should do that more often.

Fahrenheit 4-5-1 ...

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1950's novel by Ray Bradbury.  It is about a time in the future when critical thinking was discouraged and to that end, all books were burned.

451 F is the burning temperature of paper.

The future has arrived.

The Letter ...

Driving along Alderney Drive on my way to and from the Macdonald Bridge I noticed a cemetary tucked behind the "Welcome to Dartmouth" sign.

It's a small cemetary on a hill overlooking the harbour.

The sign is rusted and the entry way overgrown.

I enjoy exploring cemetaries.  Not sure why.  They are peaceful and beautiful and often there are touching messages.

There is no death, what seems so, is transition.

This life of mortal breath is

But a suburb of that life Elysian

Whose portals we call death.

One precious to our hearts has gone.

The voice we loved is stilled.

The place made vacant in our home.

Can never more be filled.

But it is the unexpected that captures my attention.

In the midst of a collection of marble engraved monuments a wooden cross stands out.

What at first glance looked tacky and out of place, upon closer scrutiny was touching and gave me pause.

There, amid the plastic flowers lies a weathered thick envelope.

I lean down to marvel that it is there and wonder about the loving message it contains.

Love is an amazing thing isn't it ?

Good bye Earl

All day yesterday my radio was tuned to the CBC Maritime Weekend.  They'd foregone their usual programming for all-day coverage of Earl. Folk would call in from all over the Maritimes with updates on what was happening in their area.  One of my favourite calls was from someone in Yarmouth at the southern tip of Nova Scotia.  He

I was a bit baffled by the constant storm timing descriptors:  "Earl's eye will hit mainland at ....".   But the eye is the middle.  Why are you telling me when the eye will hit ?  Why not tell me when the edge will hit ?  And how long it will take for the damn thing to pass over ?  They kept talking about it being very wide.  Does that mean it's going to take all day for it to pass ? 

The original predictors had it passing slightly to the west of Nova Scotia, basically chugging up the Bay of Fundy.  At the last minute Earl decided to head east with the eye passing just west of Halifax. 

It was still a Category 1 Hurricane when it hit.  The winds built slowly.  It rained heavily in spurts but nothing like the sustained downpour I was expecting.

I took this video from our back deck.  In it you see the winds whipping the tree in our yard.

At 8 am things were pretty calm.  By 9 the winds where picking up.  At 1 pm when Kait called me to pick her up from work as the power was out -- the storm was at its height.  "You want me to pick you up in a hurricane ??!!!"  I squealed.   Then I got in my car and did.  Hey, I'm a mom.  It's what we do. 

Signs on the Macdonald Bridge indicated that no pedestrians or bikes were allowed.  That meant there were sustained gusts over 80 km per hour.  Not surprisingly, there was little traffic.  Driving over the bridge there was the oddest sensation occassionally that a giant hand was gentle lifting the back of the car just a teeny bit off the road.  Winds were whipping, leaves flying in fresh salty air.  And lights were out all over the place. The intersection of Quinpool and Robie involves the meeting of 6 roads where traffic is choreographed by a dazzling display of different traffic lights -- all of which were out.  So it wasn't a four-way stop.  It was a six-way stop.  Very entertaining. 

After dropping Kait at home I went for a drive to see how everyone was faring ... oh heck ... I was going to see if there was any damage ... it's that awful fascination we have with disasters, car crashes and other tragedies.

I took this video while parked at the side of Shore Road.
 

The Weather Channel reporting  from Shore Road in Eastern Passage.

 Sadly, the last picture was taken in my backyard !  My lovely tree, which had given us shade and privacy and green leafy beauty was uprooted and leaning toward the neighbour's deck.  Luckily its roots were still holding most of the weight of the tree and so it caused no real damage. Long story, short -- neighour has chainsaw.

While the storm was still roaring, I went for a walk with my good friends, Amy and Mickie at Hartlen Point.  It wasn't raining.  It was mild with a fabulous wind.  We leaned forward and giggled and laughed as we struggled to walk during the gusts. 

The waves were huge and noisey.  They would roar in and then would come the sound of rocks rolling down the beach.  ROAR ... plinka, plinka, plinka.  ROAR ... plinka, plinka, plinka.

I love that sound.