The Titanic Cemetery…

 

Congrats to dear Peter from Peter’s Pondering for guessing that this is a picture of  Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in particular, the section of the cemetery where more than 100 victims of the Titanic disaster were buried.  Which is why, sadly, all of the granite headstones that were provided by the shipping company, whether there is a name or only a number, bear the date April 15, 1912.  Fairview is only one of three Canadian cemeteries where Titanic victims were taken.  There are 29 others buried at Mt. Olivet and the Baron de Hirsch Cemeteries, also in Halifax.

We visited Fairview on our tour of Halifax and it was heartbreaking to hear stories about some of the people and families who died.  Larger markers like the one below were paid for by individual families.  I particularly liked the poetic phraseology on this headstone.

There is also a sweet tribute to all the children that perished that day, paid for by crew of the Mckay-Bennett, a small ship that retrieved many of the bodies, including a small child who remained unclaimed and unidentified, victim number 4.  By 2011, DNA testing of the unclaimed remains buried here identified victim number 4 as 19 month old Sidney Leslie Goodwin whose family perished on the voyage.  A plaque with his information was added, though the headstone was unchanged in memory of all the children who did not survive the ill-fated trip.

And I must give an Honorable Mention to the always romantic Drew from The Lonely Author who was actually correct in identifying the picture as a cemetery and, more specifically, somewhere he would not be picking up a date!  But, you know, lonely, perhaps wealthy, grieving widow in need of comfort?  Maybe he will want to rethink his answer!