Naming the Dead

Each work day, I drive past the final resting place of many poor souls who were patients at a mental institution. That may sound like the lead-in for a joke, but it's true; my commute takes me by the grounds of what used to be the Medfield State (Mental) Hospital.

This sign stands at the edge of a field overlooking a scenic wildlife area.

I've read articles on-line about the cemeteries at these institutions; overgrown and lost, the interred; nameless and forgotten. Recently, groups have formed that are raising awareness of these situations and are working to identify the deceased, as the practice at these institutions was to just bury the dead with nothing more than a single stone marker. What was on these markers? Not a name, but a mere number. Pretty sad when you think about it.

The access road to this cemetery appears in decent-enough condition and I often wondered what the cemetery itself looked like. Well this past weekend, I found out.

Approaching the grounds, I could see that this cemetery had been salvaged; the overgrowth had been cleaned out and, overall, the grounds were kept up and had a nice surrounding fence and a memorial stone at the entrance.

Walking around any cemetery is always a bit thrilling - not in a disrespectful way at all, but when you stop to look at the names and think of the lives that folks may have had, it can be interesting, if not a bit cheerless. To think that the folks buried in this (and other institution) cemeteries didn't even receive the respect of being buried with their name, is disheartening. It was good to see that this cemetery has been revived; the numbers had been researched and the appropriate names and birth/death dates had been recovered and were engraved on individual marker plaques.

The size of these trees adds relevance to how long ago some of these folks passed away.

Overall, this cemetery looks nice and it was good to see these people's names and living time had been salvaged.
Many other cemeteries at state institutions (in Mass and around the country) have not had as much luck. Other institutions' records have been lost or destroyed, and for those locations, the dead will never be identified.

Here's a link on this cemetery, if interested. http://dsmc.info/gmedfield.shtml

Not bike related, but I thought this was interesting enough to post about.