Project Respect, Inc.

Day one of a two-day cleanup.

Working at an old abandoned and neglected cemetery is an exercise in community history, art, science, and sociology. We share sad and happy moments. Today at Restlawn was all that anyone could hope for and tolerate in a single day.

The day began with a survey of the new growth that fills the property, casting shadows over the grounds where we spent two weeks last month cleaning and clearing trees, brush, and grass. The reality of volunteering for this work is that your best efforts are temporary. Mother Nature can transform your work back into the same overgrowth that existed before you started. After a few hours of sweat today, we were joined by a number of workers from the Abundance Living organization.

By mid-day we shared a short list of the lost graves of infants who were interred at the cemetery. The list had been provided to us by the families of the babies. The mothers were among a few families who came to the family program at the cemetery on Friday, July 17, 2009.

After our program on Friday, several of us accompanied a mother as she sought to recall the burial place of her baby in the more than seven-acre cemetery. The child died at birth in the late 1970's. Her family could not afford a marker for the infant so we knew our search would be likely be futile. We continued that search today with the assistance of Mr. Kirk Dorsey who worked at the cemetery from the time when he was only 12 or 13 years old until he graduated from high school and went on to play professional basketball in Europe for several years. Mr. Dorsey is blessed with an amazing ability to recall the day, time, specific location, and circumstance surrounding many of the final burials at the cemetery. Alas, we found no trace of the infant.

There is always a special, indescribable feeling when the young and innocent are taken in death. It's the same when we walk among the tombstones and vacant spaces and realize that so many infants without markers inhabit the hallowed grounds of the Restlawn Cemetery. Later in the day, as we prepared to load the tractors, lawnmowers, chainsaws, and other equipment onto our truck's trailer, we paused to took at the new, bright, red, blue, and white silk flowers that now decorate the graves in the cemetery where only weeds and vines existed just a few days ago. We soon forgot the sadness we felt earlier when we scraped the grounds looking for that infant. It is an equally warm feeling when we know that so many families can now visit the grave of a special person who once shared moments in their life.

We made a small beginning today on our effort to implement a comprehensive preservation plan at the Restlawn cemetery. It's an uphill battle, but we are encouraged to continue our struggle each time we read a marker or monument with historical tidbits that remind us that our struggle has been impacted by the contributions of so many souls that toiled in poverty leaving little behind other than our memories of them.

Woody Jones
Project Respect, Inc.