It was an ideal afternoon to do a bit of "leaf peeping"
in South Jersey... ending up in the historic town of Greenwich.
The Old Cemetery of Greenwich Presbyterian Church
was the perfect place to stop... so many stories to tell,
about so many different lives... lived so well.
(tea-burners, craftsmen, Revolutionary soldiers, doctors,
preachers, school masters; all with a story that should be told)
At first glance, this pile of smaller stones was unsettling...
only to find out that these are "foot stones" that
have been gathered over the past three centuries.
At one time both a "head" stone and a "foot" stone
were placed as burial markers.
In the background... the old brick church; built in 1736.
It originally occupied a 34 by 44 foot space.
The stone in the foreground was placed a century later.
"Hope... aged 24 years, 2 months, and 5 days"
(we didn't measure time much differently, two centuries ago)
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."
~Proverbs 13:12
Beautiful post!! I love walking in old cemeteries -- all the stories to be told, or made up from the brief inscriptions. Thinking about these people who went before me in a different time and age. It puts things into perspective for my own life and gives me a chance to thank them for what they did in their lives.
ReplyDeleteis this in Deretown bc i was wandering for a report on school
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