[Magdalen] cemetery plots...

[Jim Guthrie]

Mom paid $600 for a plot about 40 years ago -- we can bury as many family 
members as we want -- as long as we're talking cremains.

Even better -- they allow DIY burials -- so Albert and I buried my Dad; We had a 
larger turnout for my Mom's burial (it followed the memorial service which we 
held about 6 months after her death). My brother in law took care of the digging 
on that one.

The cemetery is a Methodist churchyard a block away from where we lived in 
Smithtown. The church ceased holding weekly service in 1957, when the dwindling 
and (increasingly elderly) congregation decided it was better to drive to a 
larger church a mile away which -- unlike the Landing Church -- featured indoor 
plumbing.

It is still officially a Methodist Church -- they hold one "Official" service 
each September, and then hold a Carol Sing near Christmas, although there's no 
heat available. A couple of Methodist pastors ago, he wanted to dismantle the 
church and move it to the property where a few years before that, they'd built a 
large modernistic church. He thought it would be nice for a wedding chapel. The 
keepers of the Landing Church were appalled and the then-pastor did not serve 
out his full seven years as a result.

The church was built in 1834 -- but is not quite so historical as they had a 
fire at some point and ended up covering the outside with vinyl siding. It looks 
authentic at a distance.

For music, there is a foot-pumped harmonium which really gives an authentic 
flavor to early 19th century Protestant hymnody. I played one of the September 
services there when I was in High School. It was exhausting.

We have stone with six of us -- Mom and Dad with birth and death years, plus my 
two sisters and Albert and I. Whether any choose to be buried there remains to 
be seen (bad pun intended).

But there are others with a birth date and no burial date -- going back to the 
early 1800s, so if it doesn’t work out (and I'm not around to tend to the 
inscription), we won’t be alone.

As I've described before, my grandparents are buried at Pinelawn -- which was a 
nightmare of bureaucracy because they seem to have deals with funeral homes that 
strongly discourage coming in with a check and cremains. Although they threw up 
roadblocks, my suggestion that collusion with funeral homes might be illegal and 
things eased up.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie