Journeys›Photograph

Saying Goodbye in Kalamazoo

·Kalamazoo, Michigan·#michigan#family#spring#remembrance
A person stands near a gravestone, facing a green canopy covering a graveside setup in a cemetery under a clear blue sky.

We came out to Kalamazoo to say goodbye. Graveside only, no church — the service was at Mountain Home Cemetery, the city's first public burial ground, laid out in 1849, fifty-four acres of markers going back to the early families. Under the green tent: three folding chairs spaced apart, potted geraniums lined up at the edge of the grave, masks on under a cloudless sky. That is how goodbyes go this spring.

The girls went up to the casket together, and one of them left a small bunch of flowers on the lid before stepping back. Afterward the hugging started at the edge of the tent and went on a long time, everyone taking turns.

Across the drive the baby ended up on the grass in her white cardigan, and the adults sat down around her in their dark clothes, which loosened things a little.

Back at the house by evening the two girls were in the hammock strung between the trees, half changed out of their funeral clothes, making faces and swinging.

Two men are in a cemetery with a green tent set up over a burial plot and many gravestones under a blue sky.A person stands under a green canopy in a cemetery, looking at a brown coffin amidst gravestones and trees.Two people stand under a green canopy, facing a coffin in a cemetery with trees and red cars in the distance.A person stands facing a coffin under a green canopy in a bright cemetery.A bronze coffin rests on a green-draped stand under a green canopy in a sunlit cemetery.Four people comfort each other with hugs near a casket under a green tent in a sunny cemetery.Several people and a baby are on a large green lawn, with trees and houses in the sunny background.Two children sit in a green hammock strung across a grassy backyard between a house and a tree.

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