UNITY — A story in the Press-Herald / SASKTODAY.ca Family reaches out to thank good Samaritans, outlined the dilemma of forgotten rural cemeteries in the province.
Scotstown Cemetery is one such graveyard and last year’s cleanup efforts were noticed and appreciated by out-of-town residents, who had an aunt buried there, and had tried to keep the burial space maintained. A call-out on Facebook to pass thanks to those who orchestrated the work resulted in the discovery that Janette Tirk and family had been the ones responsible.
Sherri Peters-Davidson and her family had been trying to catch up on overgrowth and maintenance work at the Scotstown Cemetery for years. She had said in a social media post of the 2021 rejuvenation work at Scotstown Cemetery, “Imagine our extreme delight when we pulled up and whole cemetery had been cleaned up and flowers were placed on every single grave. To whomever did this, we can’t even begin to express our sincere thanks and appreciation. This means so much to our family and I’m sure other families with loved ones there as well.”
Since her extensive work at the location in 2021, Tirk approached a few businesses for help in getting a memorial bench erected at the location. Tirk was proud to say North West Terminal from Unity donated a beautiful mediation bench.
Tirk said in a social media post, that when she went to Scotstown Cemetery in spring of 2021, she was shocked at the state the graveyard was in. She had thought the RM was looking after it so enlisted help of her family to undertake the big task of cleaning up the memorial space. Since then, Tirk has been passionate about making inquiries as to how maintenance can be looked after for the future.
Bentley Sperle, Reeve of the RM of Grass Lake says, “Council did not agree to our RM completely taking over care of the Scotstown Cemetery for a number of reasons. This isn’t the only cemetery in our rural municipality, and we can’t justify it as a full-time job. We don’t have the equipment or the manpower to clean up around the headstones, and there wouldn’t be enough work to justify hiring a summer student for it. So, at present, we are going to help out as much as we can by mowing where our big equipment can go, a couple times a year.
“We understand the passion some people have for this cemetery, and we are suggesting a volunteer organization may need to be rallied to look after the main body of yearly maintenance at this location.”
Sperle even took the concerns to Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, knowing this is a province-wide concern for rural cemeteries. Sperle said while many other RMS at the APAS gathering shared the same concerns, and everyone dislikes seeing these memorial places and spaces uncared for, it is far down the priority list for the “to-do” list and there is no initiative or direction from the provincial government on this at present.
Sperle adds, “Many of these locations are on privately owned land, so that also ties our hands a bit. We are helping out as much as we can.”
A decrease in population of rural areas has resulted in the condition of a large number of country cemeteries suffering. Aging residents can no longer put in the effort needed to maintain these resting places so residents, like Tirk, who are wanting a cemetery near them to be upkept properly are left to approach local RMs for whatever help they can offer as well as enlist the help of volunteers for a work party or scheduled maintenance days to keep these area graveyards in the condition the area's pioneers deserve.
It may involve encouraging assistance from remaining family members of those who are buried at rural cemeteries or appealing to the community for assistance in an annual cleanup day. Many feel that clean, well-kept cemeteries show respect for the people buried there and forgotten cemeteries are a sign of apathy.
The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, along with the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority, presents two cemetery care and maintenance guides that provide information and guidance for the establishment, maintenance, care and repair of headstones, cemetery grounds and management of cemeteries on the link, “cemetery guides.”
