Almost 100 Years.

[Subdeacon Joe]

The War to End War

 

Getting the cemeteries all spiffed up for the centennial.

 

ZONNEBEKE, Belgium (AP) — The Tyne Cot
cemetery sweeps gently down the slope, the nearly 12,000 headstones
aligned in solemn rows of gleaming white. Beyond the walls stretch
Flanders Fields, dotted by red farmhouse roofs. For the stage of some of
World War I's worst carnage, the scene is tranquility itself — but over
the whisper of wind floats a whine like a dentist's drill.

A closer look gives the reason for the jarring sound.

Some gravestones are chipped or
cracked. A century of wind and weather has worn the surfaces so the
names are hard to read. The stones are no longer perfectly aligned.

 

I'm kind of split on this. Yes, the men need to be remembered - the ending of an Eastern Orthodox funeral service or memorial service is "And make his/her memory be eternal!"

 

But it HAS been a hundred years. Some of that passage of time should show.

Kind of hard to believe that it really has been a hundred years, well, 99 anyway.

[Utah Bob #35998]

As John McCrae said...

 

"....If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields."

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

In New England all rocks move during the winter, even grave stones. When The Germinator was interred I noticed that many of the stones in the Veteran's Cemetery were a wee bit out of line. Later in the year they had been realigned. I later learned that there is a work crew that meticulously realigns all of the stones before Memorial Day, often using labor from the prison up the road.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Thank you, Belgium. You folks are a class act.