This was my first experience going to a functioning burial park and I'm not going to lie I was a bit nervous about doing so. I was the first one there out of my group so I had a chance to get out and explore the entrance a little bit. May I just say that the huge looming wrought iron gates did absolutely nothing to calm my nerves?
The rest of my group members arrived shortly after me and we started the trek out to go record some graves. When we got to the section we were going to look at we kinda just stood on the road for a few minutes almost daring each other to go first. We finally made our way out and really once I got my feet on the grass and kept myself from remembering there were bodies under me it was totally fine!
We finished recording and then clambered into one car and took a drive around the entire park which is HUGE, I mean like amusement park big. Once we were all done taking pictures and collecting data we left the park just in time for sunset.
Later one of our group members informed the rest of us that upon further digging there was a collection of footstone and headstone burials, meaning I stepped on quite a few graves. After some shuddering I was fine and appreciated the time I spent there.
I will say there was something almost magical about reading the grave markers, it was strange to think that the person below me had a life so different than mine. Since we were recording military burials a lot of the men I was looking at were around the same age as me. It was a little sad to think they died so young and now so much time has passed their descendants probably don't even know where they are buried let alone visit them.
The experience left me with a new understanding of modern burial places, they are more interesting to me now than they are scary.
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