Five hundred bodies lost: The troubling tale of gold fortunes at Arrowtown
July 3, 2017 2 Comments
“Tragically, the last ship carrying nearly 500 bodies back to China sank off Hokianga in 1902.”
As much as we wish it wasn’t, death is part of life. By learning more about it, our mortality and ways to say goodbye, the inevitable becomes less confronting. This blog aims to reveal interesting, informative and sometimes quirky and fascinating facts and thoughts about end of life planning. It’s written by Australian journalist Lisa Herbert, author of The Bottom Drawer Book: The After Death Action Plan.
So put on your hat and some comfy shoes as we explore cemeteries, the world of funerals, death and dying, interesting graves and stories that need to be told.
“Tragically, the last ship carrying nearly 500 bodies back to China sank off Hokianga in 1902.”
Many of the graves in New Zealand’s Cromwell cemetery are for children and their mothers who were killed by typhoid fever. The exception is George Hayes, killed by a barrel of beer.
A Dissenters Cemetery caught my eye. So, what is a dissenter?
The historic cemeteries of Akaroa on New Zealand’s South Island: Catholics to the left, Dissenters to the right.
Thankfully there are people very open to the idea of talking about death and dying. These are the death doulas.
It seems I’m not alone when getting the time of a funeral mixed up.
They may just look like decoration but each of these ‘stupas’ house the created remains of several generations – with the urns of family elders placed on the top shelf of three internal shelves and subsequent generations on the lower shelves.
While the headstones and monuments at a popular Singapore tourist spot and wedding venue have been moved, the graves remain at Fort Canning Park.
Names with no graves and graves with no names. Among the graves at Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore are 850 without a name. There are 24,000 names of soldiers and airmen with no known grave.
It’s become increasingly obvious there are many people who are keen to be a prepared for the inevitable, even though that may not be any time soon.
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