[Magdalen] A good idea?

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I worked at a psychiatric center for a number of years. One thing about
these places is that folks pass away all the time, regardless of the
weather. There is a graveyard for the patients with no one else to claim
the body.  Since we had a geriatric unit, patients had often had no family
contact for decades. The yard had a ditch dug into the ground with planking
holding up the earth where the next candidate would go, so as to lessen the
time that the ground could not be dug, but, yes, in wintertime, it was a
reality that one often had to bide one's time....

There is an older lot I visited a couple of times, just about a hundred
meters from where the Appalachian Trail passes through the Center's
grounds. Totally overgrown, with a wrought iron gate top with some Bible
passage on it.  About as depressing as one can imagine, but I suppose in
the end all of our resting places will be utterly forgotten, so there's
actually little difference.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sat, Apr 23, 2016 at 10:10 AM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> My father grew up in Fargo, ND, and his parents lived there till they
> died. We went a few times to visit, but I especially remember my
> grandmother's occasional weather reports in her letters: "well, the high
> today was -10!"
> My grandfather died in February, and the high on the day of his funeral
> was -13. That's when I learned that folks who died in the winter couldn't
> be buried until the spring thaw! I think he was buried in May.
>
> > On Apr 23, 2016, at 7:36 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 4/22/2016 10:08:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> > charles.wohlers at verizon.net writes:
> >
> > Of  course, we hadn't been to North Dakota  yet.>>>>>>>>
> > A high school pal of mine lived in North Dakota much of his  life.
> > He recounted how the Dakotans loved to vacation in the nearby
> > Minnesota lakes region which is heavily forested.
> >
> > The Dakota natives pretty much agreed that "having seen one tree,
> > you've seen them all."
> >
> > I guess it all depends on perspective.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > David Strang.
> >
> >
>