The Plaques
Oops, I know it's been a while - I'll post this now since I'd always planned to do this as a separate post, and catch up the rest of the month later.
So, last week the letter from Karrakatta came - the plaques have arrived from the engravers, and have been installed.
I met up with Mum at the little cafe at the main gates just after ten on Wednesday (I caught an earlier train since there's only so long I can be aimless in the city, even if I did go looking for a few dvds she needs). Our first stop was to visit Veronica's grave - last time we were up there the masonry had yet to be done and just had a wooden cross with her name in permanent marker. Now everything's complete, and looking much better, with a rather-informative-for-a tombstone, and little white stone chips across the top.
Then it was time to double back and find our plaques in the Columbarium - Veronica's grave is pretty much in the last section before you leave the cemetery so it was a fair walk, with a large flock of galahs expressing their approval of the kinds of trees planted, and their disapproval of some loud noises from construction crews. It's interesting what you may see though - one of the graves with an Army plaque added to it listed the man as being part of my Grandpa's battallion, although possibly from WWI.
Anyway, the plaques are in the corner of two of the inwards facing walls, with a garden bed in the top, so they're shaded by a liquidambar tree - just not as big as the one we had in the house's backyard back when we lived on Trinity College's playing fields.
Sorry Dad, I know you would have said you didn't want a plaque or anything that I'd have to pay for, but you don't get to slip away like that!
Notice the border? Closest to a grape vine they had in the selection, wink wink...
Thankfully I thought to take a couple of shots without using the flash. I took a shot with the medals too, and they turned out quite nicely without the flash.
This plaque is for my great-great-grandparents, after their headstone was removed last year:
The words are adapted from what was written on the headstone.
The border on this one is the plainest one, for something my grandmother once said. When Grandma and her sisters were young, they often went to stay with their grandma. At the time, the fashion for girls was many ribbons and sashes etc. Elizabeth didn't hold with any of this. By all accounts, she was an elegant lady, but without any of those trappings, and so when the girls went to stay with her, she'd remove the ribbons and have them not wear the sashes - as the saying goes, vanity vanity all is vanity.
So, last week the letter from Karrakatta came - the plaques have arrived from the engravers, and have been installed.
I met up with Mum at the little cafe at the main gates just after ten on Wednesday (I caught an earlier train since there's only so long I can be aimless in the city, even if I did go looking for a few dvds she needs). Our first stop was to visit Veronica's grave - last time we were up there the masonry had yet to be done and just had a wooden cross with her name in permanent marker. Now everything's complete, and looking much better, with a rather-informative-for-a tombstone, and little white stone chips across the top.
Then it was time to double back and find our plaques in the Columbarium - Veronica's grave is pretty much in the last section before you leave the cemetery so it was a fair walk, with a large flock of galahs expressing their approval of the kinds of trees planted, and their disapproval of some loud noises from construction crews. It's interesting what you may see though - one of the graves with an Army plaque added to it listed the man as being part of my Grandpa's battallion, although possibly from WWI.
Anyway, the plaques are in the corner of two of the inwards facing walls, with a garden bed in the top, so they're shaded by a liquidambar tree - just not as big as the one we had in the house's backyard back when we lived on Trinity College's playing fields.
Sorry Dad, I know you would have said you didn't want a plaque or anything that I'd have to pay for, but you don't get to slip away like that!
Notice the border? Closest to a grape vine they had in the selection, wink wink...
Thankfully I thought to take a couple of shots without using the flash. I took a shot with the medals too, and they turned out quite nicely without the flash.
This plaque is for my great-great-grandparents, after their headstone was removed last year:
The words are adapted from what was written on the headstone.
The border on this one is the plainest one, for something my grandmother once said. When Grandma and her sisters were young, they often went to stay with their grandma. At the time, the fashion for girls was many ribbons and sashes etc. Elizabeth didn't hold with any of this. By all accounts, she was an elegant lady, but without any of those trappings, and so when the girls went to stay with her, she'd remove the ribbons and have them not wear the sashes - as the saying goes, vanity vanity all is vanity.