I guess I'm just a romantic fool. No better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than to take a walk through a cemetery. No kidding. Laurel Hill Cemetery in East Falls is a fun romp any day of the week but this past Saturday a group of about 35 of us gathered to hear the love stories therein. People came from Center City, New Jersey, the neighborhood (that's us) and elsewhere across the city to hear Gwen Kaminski, development and programming director, spin yarns about the many loves in the cemetery.
There was marital love, love of siblings and children, love of pets, love of self and knowledge, all of it explained in diaries or on tombstones and obelisks. And though you can see and hear the Schuylkill Expressway and all the city's other noises while standing in the cemetery, it's a surprisingly peaceful place. The residents are very quiet.
One of my favorite tales of the tour was the story of Jesse the calico cat. He belonged to David Horwitz, who was there on Saturday. Long story, but David, who teaches American history at Philadelphia Community College, had a tenant upstairs for 30 years. She'd actually lived there for 50 altogether. She was quiet and nice and all alone, so when she got sick with pancreatic cancer, David decided to let Jesse take the lead in hospice care. The tenant had a boatload of nephews but no one ever came to visit. And she was a cat person.
She died in 2001 at age 91 but there's no doubt in David's mind that Jesse made her last months a lot more bearable. "She called him her boyfriend. He was the friendliest cat I've ever had and the best caregiver ever," said David, and he's had cats since 1949. Jesse died of leukemia at age 9 a year ago, and not only did David bury his tenant in his own family plot at Laurel Hill, but Jesse went there, too.
Another tale that warmed my heart came from Daniel Dailey, an electrician from Denver, Pa., who came with his wife Donnamarie and nine-year-old twins Jacob and Maddie. In keeping with the wacky sense of humor everyone connected to this cemetery seems to enjoy, the Daileys have a hobby they call "dead Dailey hunting."
It started around 1990 when Dan's grandfather died. He'd told his grandkids tales of the family and Dan's interest was piqued. He started going to Laurel Hill to research his great-great-great-great grandfather John Birely. He found wills, deeds, all sorts of burial records for the 32 family members who were buried here between 1867 and the 1920s. John Birely, turns out, was a shipbuilder in Fishtown and a veteran of the War of 1812. His gravesite, however, was in need of repair and Dan bought a new bronze plaque, stone and shrubs for it. Total cost: $1,500.
"Everybody should have a tombstone, no matter if you knew them or not," he says. The family has been "dead Dailey hunting" in Maryland, Tennessee and Georgia, too.
Fun tales, and though they revolve around death, they're also about life. And this being a gardening blog, I couldn't resist asking Ross Mitchell, the cemetery's executive director, about the trees and plantings in this place.
He warmed to the topic. John Jay Smith, who founded the cemetery in 1836, was president of the Philadelphia Library Club and an amateur horticulturist. He planted 700 species of plants from around the world, desiring, as Mitchell tells it, for Laurel Hill to be a cemetery and arboretum. Not much remains today but there are massive gingko trees and beautiful magnolias and, while most "rural" cemeteries (which this was, in its day) had ponds and lakes, "We have the river," he said.
That makes a beautiful vista for thinking and it's also a grand metaphor, none better, for a cemetery full of people who've crossed over to the great beyond, traversed the River Styx and all that.
Fast forward past years of benign neglect and construction along Kelly Drive, and Laurel Hill now is thinning out some of the trees that over time have grown so large they block that vista. And a popular vista it was ... Mitchell says 30,000 people came to the cemetery in 1848 to picnic, walk around and enjoy the view, so many, they had to issue passes.
The cemetery is 78 acres, with only about one acre left for gravesites. But it's still a fascinating place to walk around and enjoy. In fact, Mitchell says he wants to build up the cemetery's arboretum aspect, replanting and landscaping as money permits.
You should go! Laurel Hill has wonderful programs. I've been to its Halloween walk a couple of times and the Dec. 31 birthday (and wedding anniversary) of Gen. George Meade, who is buried here in a simple grave with his beloved wife Margaretta. Next program is on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.: The Victorian Celebration of Death. Another comes on Saturday, March 15 at 2 p.m.: In Heaven B'fore the Devil Knows You're Dead, a tour and toast to St. Patrick. Give the cemetery staff a call - they like reservations for some events - at 215-228-8200 or go to www.theundergroundmuseum.org.
I have chattered on far too long. Happy Valentine's Day! and see you in the cemetery.
