I was watching Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil last night and this morning I stumbled on John Muir’s A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf. In both books Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery figure prominently. It must be a sign. I found this passage which, to me, perfectly describes why Bonaventure draws so much attention. From John Muir:
Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light.
Like many family historians, I’m fascinated by cemeteries. We have several beautiful ones here in St. Augustine, but even with the many photos taken and books written about Bonaventure, it’s almost impossible to describe its beauty. John Muir came very close. See for yourself.
A huge piece of Georgia marble sits in the middle of a reflecting pool. It has a map of Vietnam carved on its face and a pedestal at the top with an upturned rifle, empty boots, helmet and dog tags. A five-pointed star of marble embedded in the cement fans out from the pool with the insignia of each of the branches of service carved at the points. A large block of marble (shown here on the right) lists the names of the 105 area residents who were killed or missing in the war. To the east, American and POW/MIA flags fly perpetually at half-mast.
