No sense in burying the lede: I’m sold on cemeteries.
That’s why I’m tempted to move to Weld, Maine, a town of about 400 people that’s 90 miles north of Portland.
If I moved to Weld — which, OK, I’m not going to do — I’d buy my way into the Mountain View Cemetery.
Why? Well, it’s an extremely social place.
Really, it is. A recent story by Grace Benninghoff in the Portland Press Herald reported that once a year, in August, people who have purchased a resting spot in Mountain View gather at the cemetery sexton’s home.
They have a little wine, savor some snacks, and get to socialize with other plot holders.
Sean Minear, the sexton, describes the gathering as a chance to “get to know who you’ll spend eternity with.”
My late mother, who had strong opinions about cemeteries, would have enjoyed this annual preview. And, if she were there, she would have steered the conversation to trees.
There were no trees near my father’s grave in the Little Valley (N.Y.) Memorial Cemetery. My mother was hoping for some shade when she joined my father there. Thus, she lobbied Roy Zeilman, the cemetery caretaker, to plant a tree near her future grave.
Roy was no fan of trees. They give cemeteries their signature shade, but they are difficult to mow around, and they shed their leaves. My mother didn’t get her tree.
Minear, the Mountain View sexton, is pro-tree. “We’d rather have trees and have it be beautiful instead of have it look like a putting green,” he told the Press Herald.
Double-checking, I gave him a call, and he allowed that they even planted several new trees recently. All in all, my mother would have liked his attitude.
My deceased father-in-law, Joe Schmitt, is buried in Dansville, Livingston County. If he had lived in Weld, I’m sure he would have preferred a plot near people he liked. He had a point. Who wants to spend eternity underground avoiding a noisy neighbor?
Whether they’re in Weld, whether they’re in Rochester, whether they’re in Little Valley, cemeteries need care. There’s mowing and weeding to be done, flowers to be put out, and granite to be cleaned.
My mother would be pleased to know that Mary Jedrzejek Young, who lives in Ohio, but grew up in Little Valley, voluntarily worked some magic on her and my father’s headstone. Thanks to Mary, my parents’ names are clear again.
Mary has cleaned hundreds of headstones, many of them marking the resting places of veterans. (My parents weren’t veterans, but Mary’s parents and my parents were good friends.)
“It’s my retirement hobby,” she said in an email. “I do this because it’s a way of honoring my family and those that have served our country. I find it peaceful and calming in a chaotic world. And it gives me great pleasure to see the cemetery where I walk improving.”
Speaking of headstones, Annie Agan, who is 70 and alive, got permission from Minear to use a stone she found in the woods as her grave’s marker. She’s a gardener, so she wants the plaque on her headstone to read “dirt to dirt.”
She visits her headstone often, sitting on it and having a coffee.
So there’s another reason to live in Weld. You could go to the cemetery and have coffee with Annie Agan, right there in what could be your forever home. Give Minear a call. He says he’s got room.
Don Samuel Torres: Remarkable Rochesterians
Prompted by recent online article by Emily Morry in “Local History Rocs!”, let’s add the name of this leader in Rochester’s Puerto Rican community to the list that can be found at: https://data.democratandchronicle.com/remarkable-rochesterians/
Don Samuel Torres (1910-1980): The namesake for Don Samuel Torres Park in Rochester, he moved to Pennsylvania in 1949 to work on a farm and later to Rochester, where he found employment at the Clapp Baby Food Co. He soon began organizing Rochester’s then-small Puerto Rican community, especially encouraging voter registration. The leader of the Puerto Rican Democratic Committee for years, he helped elect Edwin S. Rivera as the Fifth Ward supervisor, making him the first Hispanic elected official in the state outside New York City.
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Small town cemetery in Weld Maine has an unusual tradition
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