Dear Editor,
My community of Great Brehat just outside of St. Anthony has, like most communities, a graveyard.
Graveyards are a necessity for a community and therefor so is the upkeep of the grounds.
Great Brehat's graveyard is a beautiful place without a hint of exaggeration. The sea whispers softly nearby, the graves are in good repair and the lawn is well kept by the community.
The whole yard is surrounded by a simple white wooden fence and that is the problem. Wood rots, wood breaks — in short it's a pain in the back to maintain and this has lead the community to consider wire fencing.
Wire lasts longer and does not need to be painted or replaced. In fact many other communities in the area such as St. Anthony Bight and Goose Cove have already adopted a wire fence around their graveyards, but I do not think this is reason enough to swap to wire.
Graveyards are places of culture and for good reason, everyone has to die and most people will end up in a graveyard. Tombstones, burial, mementos all reflect this and that means that nothing in a graveyard is "just" anything and this extends to the fence.
Fences in graveyards are far from functional, no animal would dig six feet into the cold ground to disturb our dead, we have no problems with vandals and God forbid the fence would be there to keep something in. The real reason of a fence in a graveyard is a marker, it outlines what we consider hallow grounds, a sacred area we must all respect and the white of a fence compliments the rows of white headstones.
It is for this reason that I ask, not demand, that we stop replacing these elegant, decorative and culturally important fences with those which are quite frankly, an eyesore.
Samuel Carter
Great Brehat
