Remembrance

My manager told me this week it's the season of letting go, of releasing and going into rest. 

That's true but it's also the time of remembrance of what and who is gone yet.  We missed All Saints' Day because of our travelling, but I took the time last week to stroll for a moment over the nearby cemetery and admire the wave of flowers present in the soft autumn sun. 

I looked at all the monuments small and big, pictures, ... I thought of people that left my life but that are at different cemeteries in Belgium, Germany & Canada and that I can't visit (regularly) so I made this a visit. at proxy. 

One monument was special and I wanted to check it out in detail since it was the cover of the latest Jo Claes that I read "Tot de dood ons scheidt" . I was just absorbed in this book the week before and the women of the sculpture allegedly is a main factor in the book (and the decorations are clues too).   So I was very curious to check out the monument in real and see who the actual family is that it belongs too. 

Since this Summer I'm aware of a great initiative too. While the cemetery seems to get emptier and emptier: old graves get cleared but I think we have more cremations and less burials and therefore there is more and more empty lots.   But the city of Leuven recovers any pictures and has a huge remembrence wall.   There is a nice poem by Peter Mangel Schodts , who is one of the powers behind the touching initiative of "Eenzame uitvaart" that also takes place in Leuven.  Very very touching.