Well, there goes another decade!
As I reflect on this past blessed decade, sometimes it seems like hours become days, days become weeks, weeks become years, and years become decades! It’s funny how time flies by.
I have worked at Woodlawn Memorial Park since May of 1977, although it doesn’t feel like 42 years.
The Guelph Cemetery Commission was founded in 1919 and this year it is celebrating 100 years of serving the public. When I take time to reflect, it feels like just yesterday that we were celebrating the Commission’s 75th anniversary. It also feels like just yesterday that we were worried about Y2K and how our computers would cope with a new century ending in 00.
How does time affect Woodlawn Memorial Park?
During the last decade, the urban forest grew a little more. Some of our century-old trees were lost due to old age, and new trees were planted. We crossed the tracks with a newly developed section of graves. We stopped spraying our weeds and the bees came back!
On a side note, this year’s crop of Sweet Memories honey has been delicious, just one of the many ways nature repays us when we treat it fairly.
You will receive a jar of our honey as a sweet token of our appreciation with a donation of $100 or more towards our Arbour Fund, (while quantities last).
The original cemetery was located where today’s Baker Street Parking lot and St. George’s Square are today. Back in 1853, a municipal by-law was passed stipulating that burials would not be permitted inside the city limits. A by-law like that makes it difficult if you operate a cemetery!
As it was, land was purchased outside the town limits and a new cemetery was created there. Today, that little cemetery has turned into beautiful Woodlawn Memorial Park serving Guelph and the surrounding area.
As we leave 2019 and head into a new year and a new blessed decade, I look forward to seeing the changes that continue to happen in this amazing community.
From your friends at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Happy New Year!
If you have questions about the services offered at our cemetery in Guelph, please call us or get in touch here.
