Tuesday, May 01, 2018

Jottings in the cemetery

Before we went on holiday I had my regular dentist check-up. On the wall was a poster saying, 'Don't rinse after brushing!' The dentist explained that it washes away the fluoride (?) so since then I've been trying to remember not to rinse. But it's hard to stop doing something you've doing for roughly sixty years.

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I had to go to the cemetery today. I'd forgotten how much I like it there. In fact I like it so much that, a long time ago, I wrote a story based in a cemetery. You'll find it here.

If you've got to die then Oystermouth Cemetery is a good place to rest your bones. The view is lovely and it's very peaceful.


I used to visit the cemetery regularly with my mum to put flowers on my great-gran's grave and then when my mum died I spent a lot of time there. The cemetery is quite old and there are some very poignant headstones like this one of a young soldier who survived Gallipolli only to die later in the war.
When I was there I remembered the oddity: the only grave that faces a different direction. I went to see it again today and discovered, thanks to the internet, that the deceased was a very generous benefactor of many good causes in Swansea. His name was Roger Beck and he was involved in the steel industry in its early years. He was a Quaker but I don't know if that's why he was buried the 'wrong way'. 

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You can tell I'm a proper writer because I procrastinate all the time. There is always something I've got to do that stops me writing.

1 comment:

nick said...

My dentist gave me the same advice and as you say it's hard at first to get used to not rinsing. But now it's completely routine and I'm sure it's a beneficial change.