Saturday, August 29, 2009

A Truly Lousy Week...

Addendum: The Doyle Drive Project has written to state that the Pet Cemetery will be restored in three years, as if they have any idea whatsoever where the broken headstones belong- let alone where any of the bodies are buried. Translation: the whole place will be sodded over, a few decorative saplings planted, and a plaque will be installed noting that here stood The Presidio Pet Cemetery...

A good, dear friend who has already suffered enough is now riddled with cancer. And so I go where I often go when I seek a place of solace and solitude- the pet cemetery in The Presidio. It's a unique little sanctuary secluded under lush pine trees, not very imposing- but sincere in the best way possible.

Arriving, I almost have the wind knocked out of me as I see every single tree gone, tombstones disturbed and broken. A barren, bombed out wasteland left in its wake. Yes, as if an overwhelming cancer had ravaged it...

I pray my friend so many miles away somehow, someway miraculously pulls through- losing one old friend so close to home has been enough this week.

8 comments:

mark page said...

I'm sorry Stan.......

Sandy Wood said...

I find more and more that I am getting the wind knocked out of me. Friends getting sick, doctors making them sicker. Trees destroyed for no reason. It is hard to stay "up."

Unknown said...

What a tragedy.

mark page said...

Of course on the bright side, regarding the Pet Cemetary there was a pretty damned good photograper who documented it. Thank god for that.

Stan B. said...

Thanks All- I can only hope and pray for my friend now; there's really nothing that can be done about the cemetery to "restore" it. I'm betting some of those trees were a 100 years old and most of the headstones are/were uniquely "homemade" by the owners who buried their pets there. It was a truly one of a kind, almost fairy tale sanctuary- I think one gets the sense of that even in the dinky little video.

No one has made any mention whatsoever what's to become of the bodies there. In three years time it'll all be covered over and gentrified with some generic roadside piece of sod and some lame plaque no one will notice on their way to Disneyland...

sharyn said...

Stan

I am terribly sorry and sad about your friend..Really really sad.

I also think the destruction of the pet cemetery is another tragedy.

Maybe you can get your pet cemetery book published and give the cemetery a place that lives forever in a book. As Mark Page said at least the place was documented by an excellent and visionary photographer.

Sharyn

john angelico said...

aw, crap. This sucks. Last time I was there I saw some very current headstone markers: people obviously were still using it to inter their beloved critters.

Unknown said...

This is unbelievable. I am not sure why the trees had to come down. The whole aura of the place is gone.