Hidden But Not Forgotten

Thank you for the lovely comments and stars for yesterday's serenity photo :-) I appreciate it and love hearing from you all xx

Another sunny day in Sydney, I would have gone to a different part of town today but City2Surf was on and I wasn't going to compete with the crowds.

Yesterday when I was on my way home from the city as my train passed through Parramatta I looked out my window and noticed a cemetery I did not know existed. I have no idea how many times I have been to Parramatta in my 21 years of providing carbon dioxide to the planet... so Today I decided to go and investigate :-)

Holy Cannoli! Australia's Oldest Cemetery. St Johns Cemetery was opened in 1790 and is now the final resting place for some of those who came on the first fleet to make Australia their new home.

Walking down the street toward the gate I noticed at the front entrance they had not removed the cobble stone entrance. The gate is suffering from the years that have passed and as I walked inside there was a notice board on the left hand side with names of those who came in from the first fleet as well as some other members of the community buried there.

A lot of the headstones have been eroded to the point where you cannot read the names anymore, I did see a few from the 1800's but I could not really tell the year.

As I walked through a few butterflies greeted me and I couldn't help but be overcome by emotion. As a child I was told that if a butterfly is in a cemetery it was the soul of someone who had departed. That has always stuck with me.
At the beginning of this year my uncle who I was very close to passed and when we see orange butterflies we are reminded of him. The butterflies today were all orange.

As I wiped the tears from my cheek and whispered a soft hello to my uncle I continued my walk through the grass. The blades of grass struck at my feet, I wondered if there was someone keeping the grounds clean and looked after.

Some find it depressing visiting these places, and I can understand why. But to me it is calming, there is always something in the air that cannot be explained but these were once people, they walked, they lived, they loved and they had families.

I tried reading a few but it was quite difficult, I wondered if anyone visited them. I couldn't find a flower to lay, but did anyone come with flowers? Looking around I didn't see any. It was sad I thought... Had they been forgotten? Then I saw a headstone which had been badly damaged by weather over the years, underneath it was a new plaque someone had placed there. It was good to see and while the sun was shining above I left the dearly departed and retreated outside the gates and back for the trains.


I hope you have all had a lovely weekend :-)

Stacy xx