We spent the afternoon yesterday in the cemetery, or rather, in four cemeteries to be exact. Both sides of Heidi's family have lived in Buffalo for generations, and along with her parents and brother, we went to pay our respects to all 4 of her grandparents, as well as her dad's grandparents, and the brothers who were the first of their surname to come to the United States from Germany back in 1845.
Remarkably, they were all laid to rest in what has become an enormous cemetery complex just south of Buffalo, in the town of Cheektowaga, NY. Originally known as The United German and French Roman Catholic Cemetery, it was established in 1859 by nine trustees, representatives of six parishes whose congregants were mostly immigrants. The cemetery quickly filled, and over the years several adjoining farms were purchased and used to expand the grounds.
Five cemeteries are known today as The Mount Calvary Cemetery Group; in addition to Mount Calvary and UGF, the collective also includes Pine Lawn, Ridge Lawn, and Buffalo Cemetery. Adjoining the grounds are also 3 Jewish Cemeteries, a Lutheran cemetery, and two independent Catholic cemeteries, one, Holy Sepulchre, that was founded for Italian immigrants and another, St. Stanislaus, for Polish. Not far away is Holy Cross, originally consecrated for the Irish laborers who came to Buffalo to dig the Erie Canal, build the railroads, and work on the steamships that plied the great lakes.
Standing in the shade of a silver maple and looking over gentle green hills filled with row after row of granite and marble stones it was easy to forget that each memorialized at least one real person with a whole life of joys and disappointments. Many were carved with a cross that was tilted at an angle, a symbol I was not familiar with until I looked it up. Known as a Portate Cross or the Cross of St. Glbert, it represents a burden laid down after a life well-lived.
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