It was an ordinary day. Driving through the Lancaster Cemetery trying to depict the story that was recently in the Lancaster Newspaper that read..."FAREWELL TO A GIANT." The "Giant" was a centuries-old ash tree that sat close to the entrance of the Lancaster Cemetery. About 50 people gathered for the funeral...for the tree! Any person, place or thing that can last for a few centuries deserves to have a funeral! My guess is there wasn't even a cemetery at that location centuries ago. Probably wasn't even a city at that location back then. The cemetery is on Lemon Street, east of Lancaster General Hospital. It was decided that the old tree deserved to have an interfaith ceremony. Mr. Chad Ostrowski organized the interfaith event which included Rabbi Jack Paskoff from Congregation Shaarai Shomayim, Rafael Diaz, who's a Vajrayana Buddhist and chaplain intern and Pastor Elisa Parmer from East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church. A poem was read by Elisa that read: "When I am among trees, / especially the willows and the honey locust, / equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, / they give off such hints of gladness / I would almost say that they save me, and daily." Grace Henderson of Lancaster city, who has Indigenous roots, read a Lakota tree prayer. She also spoke about her love of trees since she moved to the county about 30 years ago. Volunteers used a ladder to climb the tree stump to count the rings, but Ostrowski said the rings were too small and jagged to tell exactly how old it was. "Cemeteries are places where we remember the deceased, but they're also places for the living," said Tim Freund, board president of the Lancaster Cemetery. "So the more we can do to have events and to celebrate the space, I'm all for that." The Lancaster Cemetery was founded as part of the first Reformed Church on Orange Street. It was reformed as a nondenominational cemetery in 1848 and grew from 11 to 22 acres. The tree that was just celebrated was located near the intersection of Park Ave. and Lime Street and was an ash tree that died before being cut down about a month ago. The tree was at least 200 years old, older than the cemetery on which it stood. It took about 6 hours to cut the tree down by Doug's Tree Service. The ground was wet that day, so they left the tree's pieces behind for the time being. On March 30, new holes will be dug for new trees and the community is encouraged to come out and help. I enjoyed so much making my visit to the cemetery and taking photos of the tree stump and the surrounding area. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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The entrance into Lancaster Cemetery     |
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