coolest thing i saw at the graveyard today

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1551648_10153471781587137_1434851120950945058_n.jpg?oh=23a33e1853a2756381e6903559259250&oe=5518ACD2&__gda__=1424259256_83c6b40988661268a35e2b7506d896fe

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10628356_10153471781817137_4595660511616125330_n.jpg?oh=1d4c3a94821798107ee0a4ad9e4c4b06&oe=54ED7E44

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1441354_10153471781877137_6503991699530246511_n.jpg?oh=e11b47736133e3a7ab4ef40ed09b0b7e&oe=54E3D632

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1383409_10153471781952137_7375798858006072366_n.jpg?oh=161dbf2e3c413b015c6690b20dd3e757&oe=54E4EFB2

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10430903_10153471782017137_2111359858858647674_n.jpg?oh=3723e62512d39ce7c4952199fd5582a4&oe=54DC4CCB&__gda__=1423286942_a869c02af13ded5f962d65705455f00d

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1237537_10153471782127137_1363476774496821895_n.jpg?oh=c3aa3bb799d04c70471a620087e030a8&oe=54E0BAAD

that gravestone looks fragile!

i used to wander around new england graveyards when i was in college, the number of children's graves was always quite sad :(

Tewksbury Hospital Cemetery might be the saddest cemetery I've wandered around. it's a tract of new-growth woodland dotted with iron crosses (and the occasional headstone) marking the graves of patients who died at the hospital with no one to claim their remains.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050409130540/http://www.fadingdreams.org/DSH/galleries/Tewksbury/cemeteries/cemeteries.html

There are three cemeteries on the grounds of Tewksbury Hospital with at least 10,000 graves in them. Tewksbury Hospital opened in 1854 and its cemetery directory dates back to 1891 and contains 9,342 names. Patients who died between 1854 and 1891 are not recorded, so the total number of graves is not known. The grave markers, three-inch high metal circles with crosses in the middle, are rusted and easy to miss because of the overgrowth of weeds. Although on occasion community groups have done some clearing of overgrowth in the cemeteries, the hospital has no money in its budget for regular maintenance.

volunteers have been working to beautify the cemetery over the past couple of years ⁠— spraying the markers with metallic paint, weeding some of the grave sites, clearing out walking paths⁠ — but there's really no way to dignify a site that's essentially a dumping ground for the nameless poor.

https://i.imgur.com/z2aFIE3.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/faj9ZiJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mbCp9Q4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/duvMv3h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/io5s1Wv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5t3y7G7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VTf8H0A.jpg

also saw this at a cemetery in my hometown:

https://i.imgur.com/VXujaXn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bOB6hkv.jpg

it's called a chest tomb, and the bodies are buried in the ground underneath the structure rather than inside of it (but maybe the vandal wasn't aware of that?)