How a Green Cemetery Found Its Way into My Novel

In the third installment of my Rites of Passage trilogy, Midlife Visions, Lauren’s two close friends from childhood — and her mother’s neighbors — own a “green cemetery.”  Virgil and Dixon have returned to their hometown after their mother’s death and have bought the homestead and land where their mother first fell in love.  Dix, the social butterfly, is still cutting real estate deals even though he’s a retired attorney and he’s often out of town.  Virgil has recently retired from the military to take care of his dying mother, and now that he’s back in his hometown, has taken a volunteer position with the local hospice facilities where he serves his hometown community as a “death walker,” though the locals don’t really use that terminology, of course.   He helps the dying pass with dignity and compassion or as he says, he “walks them home.”

I pause to let his words sink in. The kid I used to babysit grew up to get shot nine times, works with the dying, and now owns his own environmental-friendly cemetery next door to my childhood home. I don’t sense any witchy vibes from my old flame, but magick swirls all around Virgil. — Midlife Visions

It made sense to me that Virgil would turn the oak-dotted pastures and woods behind his new home into a green cemetery, which is an eco-friendly or natural burial ground having minimal impact, such as wooden coffins and no embalming chemicals.

For that part of the story, which isn’t really that big, I drew from my own experiences, and while this isn’t the usual kind of research, it comes from being open to new experiences and learning new things.  That’s served me well.

I’d never heard of a green cemetery until around 2005.  I was working with a healing circle at the time, and we had a mid-week road trip planned to see if the land we’d heard about was as energetically appealing as we’d been told.  As it turned out, the leader of the circle had ulterior motives for being at this location, and the healing circle was a bust. While I waited for my ride home, many hours later,  I spent time with the caretakers of the cemetery and learning about what exactly they did and what a green cemetery was.

The caretakers were an older couple who lived in the house on or next to the cemetery land, much like the old farmhouse that Virgil and his brother Dixon now own.  They made their own bio-degradable coffins, operated the grave-digging equipment, and served as liaisons to any family members who came to visit where a loved one was buried.   The graves were discreetly marked with a rod and a number, and the couple provided a map to any visitors looking to visit a grave.

I did visit some of the graves while there.  The acreage was diverse, and it was interesting to see where people had chosen for their final resting places.  Some were near a hidden lake, some near the woods, some in a field of grass and flowering weeds.   It was peaceful, much like the green cemetery in Midlife Visions where several graves are hidden among the oaks in the lush pasture. This cemetery was just a quiet farm where you could hear the swish of wind in the grass and the songs of birds in the trees while the residents slept in Nature’s embrace. What  a great role model for my story!

 

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