-
|
      
-
- Cosway's Corner -
Saying our goodbyes
-
- Saying goodbye: From mummies to space
memorials
-
- By John Cosway
Since the dawn of man, humans have respectfully said their goodbyes
to the dearly departed in a variety of ways based on rituals,
customs and religion.
-
- From mummified remains in the tombs of Egypt, placements
in the catacombs of Rome, China's Terracotta Army burials, burials
at sea, sacrificial burials, the funeral pyres of the Vikings
and other cultures.
-
- North Americans have been more traditional over the centuries,
but it has provided options, including cryonics, cremation jewellery
and space memorials.
-
- Cremation jewellery, now widely available for under $100
on up and using small amounts of human ashes, include memorial
rings, pendants, lockets, bracelets etc.
-
- The imagination soars when it comes to space memorials.
-
- Celestis Inc.'s Memorial Spaceflights in the U.S. - www.celestis.com
- was founded in 1997 and offers four options costing $1,000
to $60,000: Earth Rise Service: spaceflight returns to Earth;
Earth Orbit Service: launch into Earth orbit; Luna Service: launch
to lunar orbit or surface, and Voyager Service: launch into deep
space.
-
- The missions involve a "symbolic portion of cremated
remains."
-
- "Your loved one will venture into space as part of a
real space mission, riding alongside a commercial or scientific
satellite," says the online promotional material.
-
- The first Celestis memorial launch was on April 21, 1997,
with ashes of American writer/futurist Timothy Leary, who died
in 1996, and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who died in
1991, aboard.
-
 In April of 2007,
ashes of American astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., a space pioneer
who died in 2004, James Doohan, the Canadian-born Star Trek actor
who died in 2005, and dozens of others were successfully recovered
after a suborbital rocket flight.
-
- The first human remains sent to another planet were on NASA's
January 1998 Lunar Prospector Mission. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker,
a noted American planetary geologist who was killed in a 1997
traffic accident in Australia at 69, was denied a moonwalk because
of a medical condition.
-
- Shoemaker's ashes have been on the moon since July 1999.
The lunar program is being expanded to accommodate multiple capsules
on its next lunar launch in 2011.
-
- More down to earth are the cemeteries that remind of us of
our mortality.
-
- In Ontario, where traditional burials have been the norm
for centuries, there are an estimated 5,300 registered cemeteries,
large and small, and 1,500 known unregistered cemeteries dotting
the landscape.
-
- "The earliest known burial sites in Ontario are First
Nation ossuaries," Marjorie Stuart, an Ontario Geological
Society spokesperson, tells the Wayback Times. "Perhaps
the best known are Serpent Mounds at Rice Lake and Tabor Hill
in Scarborough."
-
- Serpent Mounds, the burial site of the Point Peninsula aboriginal
people, dates from 128-320 AD, and the Tabor Hill Iroquois burial
site from 1250AD.
-
- Stuart says aboriginals maintain "strong spiritual and
cultural ties" with the remains of ancestors.
-
- Aside from aboriginal burial grounds, what is the history
of burials in Ontario?
-
- "European explorers, woodsmen, fur traders and missionaries
were often buried near where they died and most remain in unknown
locations or at missions or outposts," says Stuart.
-
- She says settlers were first buried on their land and later
in organized cemeteries, sometimes municipal, or in places of
worship when they became organized. Early burial grounds remain
today in Kingston and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
-
- "We will never know the location of all of Ontario's
burials sites."
-
- (Stuart recommends two books for Wayback Times readers: Into
the Silent Land - Historic Cemeteries & Graveyards in Ontario,
by Dr. Jennifer McKendry, and Old Canadian Cemeteries Places
of Memory, by Jane Irwin.)
-
- Initially, record keeping was sketchy at best, she says.
A few places of worship kept records and drew plot plans to show
where burials had occurred, but they were the exception.
-
- "Local gravediggers knew where people were buried so
a record wasn't necessary."
-
- Civil registration in Canada came into effect in 1869, but
in the case of deaths it was not strictly adhered to until 1912.
-
 Since then, Ontario
cemeteries have generally avoided major scandals that have plagued
American cemeteries, including the recent blemish on the revered
Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
-
- A probe at Arlington, where presidents, soldiers and other
historic figures have been buried since 1864, uncovered headstones
found in streams and along their riverbanks, 210 mismarked graves
on maps, graves with no headstones, urns with cremated remains
found in dirt piles.
-
- While cemeteries in Ontario, controlled under the Cemeteries
Act by the consumer and business services ministry's cemeteries
regulation unit, are not free from missing records, markers and
headstones, relatives of the deceased generally do have peace
of mind.
-
- Stuart says caring for grounds in large, registered cemeteries
is usually well done. Small cemeteries that do not have care
and maintenance funds are maintained by a small core of volunteers.
Many are loyal and dedicated. Others do not bother.
-
- She says all cemeteries should be considered more than burial
sites.
-
- "Cemeteries are essentially for the burial of the dead,
but the monuments, mausoleums, other structures and landscapes
are an important and overlooked part of our heritage."
- Some religious cemeteries have annual remembrance services
and others, particularly in rural areas, have an annual Decoration
Sunday during the summer.
-
- "Family reunions are also popular during summer months
and the lives of their ancestors are commemorated," says
Stuart.
-
- Tombstones tell much of their stories.
-
- Stuart says "tombstones reflect the deceased, their
interests, their background and the community and times they
lived. The inscriptions are of great value to genealogists."
- The OGS has been the driving force behind a volunteer effort
to transcribe all of Ontario's tombstones. A group is currently
transcribing at St. James Anglican Cemetery in Toronto where
tombstones are fading.
-
- "Most of the various branches have completed the transcribing
of the older cemeteries in their area and now go back to update
in their larger cemeteries," says Stuart. "Larger areas,
like Toronto, have huge cemeteries that have never been transcribed."
- Stuart says the Cemetery Transcribing Project always needs
volunteers willing to spend time in the fresh air transcribing
tombstone and marker information.
- "The first types of marker were often field stones,
wooden crosses or cairns of local stones. Most of these have
not survived. More elaborate tombstones became available with
the arrival of European stonemasons. Many of these were artists
working in stone, while others simply carved the necessary data.
"These 'one of a kind works of art' are subject to weather
conditions and, sadly, vandalism. Some cemetery administrators
are aware of their value, but with limited resources cannot preserve
this heritage resource."
-
- Despite the current best efforts of the ministry, cemetery
administrators, genealogy groups and volunteers, some cemeteries
in the province have been abandoned.
-
- "Some religious groups have abandoned cemeteries, either
by design as maintenance costs soar or the group no longer exists,"
says Stuart. "There is provision under the Cemeteries Act
for municipalities to assume abandoned cemeteries by applying
to the Superior Court. This is a mixed blessing as these cemeteries
do not come with funds, but rather the liabilities of maintenance."
-
- Some cemeteries are also intentionally waist-deep in weeds.
-
- "There are a few cemeteries, particularly Red Cloud
Cemetery and Russ Cemetery in Northumberland County, which have
natural grasses and flora that were in danger of extinction.
These have been left untouched deliberately."
-
- The fallacy of Ontario cemeteries is rest in peace means
forever. Cemeteries do get moved for closures, housing and industrial
developments, road widening, highway interchanges, water rerouting
etc., with mixed results.
-
- "It was often the practice to move tombstones and maybe
even some of the bodies associated with a tombstone," says
Stuart. "However, in numerous cases it has been discovered
bodies still remain. This is a costly surprise for buyers of
property who may be unaware of the earlier burial ground until
construction starts."
- The OGS - www.ogs.on.ca
- cites an ongoing dilemma over the Cooley-Hatt Cemetery in Ancaster.
It has 99 known burials from between 1786 and 1822.
-
- The unmarked family cemetery on the Niagara Escarpment, located
in the Greenbelt and on municipal maps, is in a tract of land
purchased by a developer.
-
- Stuart says the developer wants the cemetery moved and has
taken the case to the Ontario Municipal Board because the city
has not approved development plans.
-
- To ancestors, the cemetery represents much more than a piece
of real estate.
-
- Among the early settlers buried there is Richard Hatt, a
businessman, judge and politician who founded Ancaster and in
1800 developed Dundas Mills, a centre with mills, stores and
potashery.
-
- Hatt, appointed a Justice of the Peace, was wounded in the
Battle of Lundy's Lane during the War of 1812. He later published
the Upper Canadian Phoenix and was elected to the 7th Parliament
of Upper Canada. He died in 1819 and is buried with his wife,
the former Mary Cooley, and many of their children.
-
- So rest in peace doesn't always mean forever.
-
- There is a story beneath every tombstone and crematorium
marker. With the dedication of the OGS and other organizations,
those stories will survive for generations.
-
- Photos:
-
- 1 - Dr. Eurgene Shoemaker, first human ashes on the moon
-
- 2 - Canadian actor James Doohan of Star Trek fame
-
- 3 - Traditional cemetery tombstones near Hastings, Ontario
|
-
|
