In Memoriam

Yesterday I went back to Holy Trinity Hawley to rifle through the vestment drawers, discovering in the process a pink fiddleback (the only Roman-style kit the church has apart from the incumbent's own). 'I came through the cemetery', I told him, 'You have a remarkable line in floral tributes here'. 'Yes', he responded dubiously, 'I'm not sure everything there is entirely legal'. 

On my return journey to the car I looked more carefully at the monuments. I remember S.D. telling me once that to demand most people to think coherently and philosophically was expecting too much, and that the great majority of souls gather together a collection of images and ideas that work for them. This is what you find in Hawley Cemetery. 

The arch of flowers around the heavenly gates - with the cross atop for good measure, does announce some kind of belief in a postmortem existence:

There's a little devotional card in the above picture (as well as some souvenirs of Cyprus), and at the monument below there's not just one but two large Jesuses draped with rosaries. But you also get some extremely eclectic bits and pieces. That's a small black elephant decorated with pieces of mirror in front of Jesus, a little old chap sitting in a chair, various toy vehicles, and cut off on the left side, a squirrel with a candle holder. In addition this tomb has china birds, metal ladybirds, and a photo of a dog among other objects.

I would very much like to know what's going on in some of the assemblages. A laminated picture of Last of the Summer Wine laid on astroturf (there's a lot of astroturf in the cemetery, perhaps a symbol of eternity) made me gape at first, but I suppose it must have been a show especially beloved by the deceased. Presumably the cigarette lighters and beer can in the second photo below are an insight into the enthusiasms of that grave's occupant, too.

But I'm not sure that applies to everything. Are some of the toys and ornaments reflecting not the commitments of the dead, but the feelings of the living, perhaps children?

If you had to summarise the ideas you can see expressed in these groups of artefacts, they would be something like 'This is what we want to remember about Grandad, we trust he's safe, and we think his safety has something to do with Jesus and angels'. Functionally it's a cheap, demotic version of the grandiose stuff aristocrats used to fill churches with, though I fear it won't last as long.