Adventures in Mount Hope Cemetery

Today was an adventure. My friend Deborah and I plotted and made our escape. Since it was our first joint venture, we didn't wander especially far, but instead made our way to the city of Rochester, NY and the old Mount Hope Cemetery.

Mount Hope is one of Rochester's oldest cemeteries and is situated in an area of rolling hills and mature trees. It's almost like being in a sprawling park. In days past, families would often picnic there on warm summer afternoons. The roads through the park twist, turn, and tumble over hills and soon I was feeling just a little disoriented, although not entirely lost.



Somewhere in the maze of roads and headstones are markers belonging to my grandmother and her parents, but we didn't chance to happen upon them today. We did pass by the simple white marble headstone of Susan B Anthony. It had been decorated with flowers and stickers claiming "I voted today." I had to smile and realize that our photos of her gravestone are a bit more unique than the many others I found online.


This afternoon city workers were busy blowing fallen leaves into piles which lined the sides of several roads. We resisted the urge to scuff our feet though the wonderfully crunchy heaps when the workers were within eye-shot...

... but when rounding a bend at the backside of the  cemetery and feeling quite solitary, I couldn't resist a good old fashioned plop backward into the pile.

(This is getting long, isn't it? I'll finish it up quick.)

We found the marker for the Bausch and Lomb family...
(Think contacts lenses and eye glasses.)

Towering obelisks reached skyward as leaves tumbled to the earth...

"The Weary Pilgrim," an incredibly beautiful sculpture by Nicola Cantalamessa-Papotti, rested at the grave of Aaron Erikson.

 A river (or perhaps it was a sea) of leaves blankets the hills and valleys.

We walked a good portion of the cemetery, took a bazillion photos and wore ourselves out before finding some lunch at The Distillery across Mount Hope Avenue. It was, a wonderful day!