We are about to hold the 10th burial at Hackpen and it seems a good time to reflect. When we hosted the first in February this year we were hoping it would be the start of something meaningful but we had only an idea how it would feel to be burial ground custodians. Since then we have learned so much – certainly about the practicalities of burials – but more from the families we have got to know at such a poignant moment in their lives, how much they value the freedom to choose how they say goodbye, how much thought and love they pour into those goodbyes.
And as we heard about those they have lost, their lives and their characters and the difference they each made, we realised what a privilege it feels to be entrusted with their resting place. Hosting burials turns out not to be gloomy or depressing at all…….but it is a responsibility to which we are wholely and happily committed.