Infirmary Cemetery

by Carolyn Johnson Burns

The background on this page is a view of the Infirmary Cemetery.

After rounding the bend in the road on the day I went to take these pictures, I was shocked at my first sight of the cemetery. Row after row of dark headstones stood in a field covered with leaves from the previous Fall. Quite a few headstones were leaning, many had fallen. Trees had grown up in the middle of the rows, almost as if they had been planted under the headstones. One tree, charred and laying on the ground, looked like it had been struck by lightning.

What a disheartening site it was to see row after row of headstones with nothing printed on them except a number and a year. I walked the entire cemetery and found two personalized headstones, both of which are shown below. Someone had placed artificial flowers on one grave. The flowers had fallen apart and the wind had scattered them. As I walked, I would occasionally find one of those flowers laying on a grave, possibly the only flowers to ever find their way to this lonely and forsaken place. It was sad that so many people had been reduced to nothing but a number on a stone.

These are pictures taken in February 2001 of the Infirmary cemetery. Click on each picture to see a larger view.

Most recent section.	Entire cemetery.
Oldest section.	First personalized stone.

Second personalized stone.

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