Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery III

There are come very interesting graves in this cemetery. This one, made of brick, give the odd appearance of a barbecue.

This one, with the crucifixion depicted on the top, is unusual in most cemeteries and certainly unique in this one.

Here is one with a hand holding a scroll summarizing a life, in that terse, matter-of-fact way headstones so often do.

When the headstone lists the age of the child in months and weeks, you know the story this represents has no joy in it. Some lives are too hard for a simple stone, no matter how expertly carved, to provide a meaningful memorial. At best, it is as the base notes, a token only.

Some of the monuments capture the essence of the lives the people lived.

Others, through no fault of their own, tell a story that goes beyond any tale carved into the stone.

Others are accompanied by their pet while watched by the inverted dove.

And for reasons I don't fully grasp, the grass does not cover the graves themselves. Perhaps this is to make it easier to maintain the lawn. Perhaps it has a religious meaning. Perhaps it would all be barren red rocky soil if someone didn't work to create green and soften the experience of visiting. I don't know. I do know that this, combined with the relatively small number of trees make for an austere experience.

As is often the case, there is one marker that seems to have an inner glow and really stands out. Many headstones tell us where the resident was born. The stone below tells us how the couple got to Australia, not their birth place. The change in their lives as a result of the trip must have been a rebirth that outshone even their original birth. Their memorial certainly still shine strong in the afternoon sun.