Lee Memorial Park
I have several times alluded to the time I spend in cemeteries, usually looking for the graves of ancestors – either Jett’s or mine. But this season, I have taken to walking cemeteries as (1) a way of getting some regular mild exercise and (2) collecting some feel-good endorphins. No ancestors involved as neither of us have any ancestors buried in the area.
I have, in the past, tried to satisfy some “photo requests” posted in findagrave.com. These are requests for headstone photos posted by geographically-distant relatives. But there are relatively few of these and many are impossible to resolve as the headstone may be missing or the grave location is incorrect. That means a lot of walking with little satisfaction. I get plenty of exercise but no endorphins. This season I decided to go after easier prey – unphotographed graves. In many cemeteries there are relatively few of these as well. But I noticed that one large nearby cemetery – Lee Memorial Park in Lehigh Acres, just a few miles away – had over 15% unphotographed graves. Since the cemetery has over 11,500 graves, that meant over 1,800 opportunities to feel good. Finding and photographing graves on this list became a season-long goal.
I am not finished yet, but my current count of photographed graves is north of 1,200. I believe it will be over 1,400 when I finish. I think it will probably take another 6 or 7 hours in the cemetery. Should be easy to do before we head north. Because, with everything closed in the pandemic, I have plenty of spare time.
I couldn’t have predicted this, of course, when I embarked on this task, but it turns out to be a really good way to get exercise during a pandemic. It is very easy to adhere to “social distancing” rules when I am surrounded by dead people. There are, occasionally, other visitors to the cemetery, but it is a huge cemetery and it is very easy to avoid other living humans.