In some of the most inhospitable environments on our planet, plants and animals thrive. From the blind fish in underwater caverns to cacti thriving in desolation, life adapts.
- Charles Darwin
The deceased are not without their own resourcefulness.
- Cynthia Watson Client Service Coordinator Briarwood Cemetery.
Briarwood Cemetery’s gates closed promptly at 7 pm. Today was the first day of spring, and sundown was 6:58. It was now 7:30. And so Cynthia Watson, Client Service Coordinator for the Dead, stood outside the gates in the cold and under the faint glow of a distant street light.
She did not fumble for what she needed. Fumbling, stumbling, or being unprepared was not in Ms. Watson’s nature. Her leather satchel bag may be from an earlier time, but Victorians understood the need for pockets and organization. The key to the iron gates never left the inner pocket, which was its home unless it was necessary.
Cynthia let herself in and locked out the world of the living.
The inner reaches of Briarwood Cemetery were as dark as any medieval wood. Trees formed a canopy and blocked out any moonlight. Even with late winter snow reflecting ambient light, a few steps into Briarwood and you were consumed in darkness.
