Tombstone Tuesday: ...to bring a little sunshine

When I was a child we lived next door to an elderly widow named Annie.  In the Spring and Summer, on every Sunday afternoon, Annie travelled out to the cemetery with one of her adult children in order to visit family graves.  On these occasions Annie always carried with her an armful of beautiful yellow roses. I had read about the language of flowers and understood that the yellow rose was a symbol of friendship, and had at one time signified jealousy, so in my child's mind I was really curious about the meaning of Annie's yellow roses.  One day I screwed up the courage to ask Annie why she always brought yellow roses to the cemetery.

Annie wasn't really interested in someone else's interpretation of the meaning of her offering, and I was worried that I had offended her when I asked.  Instead she just smiled at me, gently wrapped her arm around my shoulders, and explained that to her the yellow roses were a bit of warmth and sunshine.  Annie said that she put yellow roses on the graves of those she loved very much because they could no longer see the sun or feel the warmth of sunshine on their faces.

The idea of bringing warmth and sunshine to a place of so much sadness very much appealed to me back then.  Now that I am an adult, when I visit the grave of someone I love, I always bring yellow roses to deliver a little sunshine, just like Annie did.

Grave of my paternal Great-Grandparents, my grandfather, and grand-aunts and a grand-uncle,
Deansgrange Cemetery, Blackrock, Ireland.

Grave of my paternal grandmother Anne, her brother Michael, and my great-grandparents, Patrick and Mary,

Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland.

Grave of my paternal grand-aunt Mary 'Mollie', her husband William 'Willie', and his parents, Robert and Kathleen.
Deansgrange, Blackrock, Ireland.

Click on photographs to view larger version.
All photographs Copyright©J.Geraghty-Gorman 2011.