Grave

Not happy with any candidate blips today, but we have just watched Grave of the Fireflies, so this seemed to suit the mood best. I must admit that I didn't expect quite such a sad film, but it was beautifully drawn and filmed.

We went for a walk around the York Cemetery this morning in the sunshine (and cold wind). As well as being a working cemetery, it is also a wildlife sanctuary in the city and a peaceful open space. What is perhaps unusual about it is the mix of tended graves and ones which have been forgotten by the living, slowly decaying and returning to the earth like those they mark.

Frederick Parkins died 115 years ago. He must have worked on the railways, for the gravestone was erected by the Guards and Shuntermen of the Northern Railway. I expect he died at work.

Now the stone is cracked and it seems he is no longer remembered, but his death may have been one of the straws on the camel's back which eventually lead to safer working conditions for everyone in this country. People would soon stop complaining about 'Health & Safety' if they had to bury a few 26 year old colleagues every year.