Gone, but not forgotten Montreal, QC July 2009 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
He died barely six weeks after this photo was taken, and the photos from that day have become something of a touchstone for me, a dividing line between the chapter where we had him and the chapter where we no longer did.
I don't hold much stock in cemeteries as places where you visit your family members. They're dead. Their bodies may be buried here, but their souls remain alive in all of us - in our memories, and behaviors and traits that we learned from them.
So it doesn't take a trip to a rectangle of prettified earth to connect with them: You can do that anytime. And we honor them by being the best people we can be - which, again, is an anytime, anywhere kind of deal.
And yet cemeteries are resonant places. They make you think. Reflect. Disconnect from the real world so you can hang out in the not-so-real one for a few precious moments. I derive a strange sense of comfort whenever I walk through one.
I'm not sure why I've chosen to share this photo, after over a decade, now. Perhaps it's because today is also rainy. Or maybe amid the turbulence of a world seemingly gone mad I'm subconsciously looking for images, stories, experiences, or memories that anchor me.
Whatever the reason, I think I need to spend more time in places like this, thinking about those who once lived, and who continue to color the lives of those they touched. Because it's always a good time to cling a little more tightly to a memory.
#montreal #quebec #canada #delasavane #cemetery #life #remember #parents #parenthood #throwback #weather #wx #monochrome #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything
Related:
- Thematic Photographic 59 - Elemental, July 2009
- Bird on a stone, July 2009
- Caption This 135, September 2009
- At rest, January 2010
- Notes from a cemetery, March 2011
- Scene from a cemetery, November 2019
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