Rose Hill Cemetery, March/2017

If you look at a map, Riverside and Rose Hill cemeteries seem to be one continuous blob, but in fact they are separate cemeteries, separated by Oak Ridge cemetery, which may or may not be a distinct entity.

This appropriately dilapidated house sits on the edge of the cemetery.

As you've seen, the views here can be quite pretty.

A small entrance gate to Rose Hill.

A bit of Macon across the street.

Views of downtown Macon.







The main entrance gate to Rose Hill Cemetery .

Many of the retaining walls in Rose Hill are crumbling.  If you are into gentile decay, this is the place for you!

Life always seems to spring up from the wreckage.

If you want to pay your respects to two of Rose Hill's more famous residents, Duane Allman and Berry Oakley, you'll need to head down to Carnation Ridge.

Behind this locked gate ..........

...... the two musicians rest in peace, (and presumably harmony!).

More ramblings through Rose Hill:

It's always sad to stumble across a memorial to a dead child.  (Reality can be a sick bitch at times.)  This one, which honors a six year old boy, ends with a promise of hope, as the child apparently died with a smile on his face.

"The Spoiler set his spell of silence, but there beamed a smile, so fixed and holy from that marble brow - Death gazed and left it there.  He dared not steal the signet ring of Heaven."

Amen!   

Now I suppose it is best to leave the dead to their sleep and return to our lives of busy trivialities, knowing that one day will we join them.

Riverside Cemetery, March/2017

I made a quick visit to Riverside Cemetery, (located in Macon, GA), to pay my respects to some of my deceased relatives.

It's kinda creepy, but folks in my immediate family seem to move to Macon to die.  Ugh!  I hope to break that pattern!

My Grandma and Uncle Tom are buried in the part of Riverside Cemetery that is cut off from the rest by I-75.

After some confusion, I finally found Grandma and Uncle Tom.

Grandma was a tough old lady who raised five of her own children, and several children of cousins and neighbors, mostly by herself through the depression.  I wish Kuya and Dodong could have met her.

Uncle Tom was a cool, "free spirit" of an uncle.  Folks always told me that I reminded them of him when he was younger.  I always took that as a compliment!

I'm sure if the Jones family is kin or not, or just neighbors.

While I generally enjoy walking through cemeteries, the graves of young children always makes me sad.  Here are three little ones the same husband and wife had to bury.

Once I get the tears out of my eyes, I can enjoy the scenic views.

My Aunt Leola and her husband Clarence are also resting at Riverside, in the main part of the cemetery, in a mausoleum.  (They were cremated, I believe.)

I'm not sure who the Brent family are, but they seem like really, really cool folks!

There are some nice Victorian memorials in the cemetery, but nothing as spectacular as you may find up North.  For example, I used to live near the Homewood Cemetery in east Pittsburgh, PA, and it had some super impressive statuary.  But if you consider the time period, then this makes sense.  The "Victorian years" more or less occurred after the Civil War, a conflict that absolutely ravaged the southern states.

Now let's stroll over to Rose Hill, to pay our respects to Duane and Berry!