NUNS and PET CEMETARIES

My instructions are to take the train from Grand Central Station to Hartsdale NY.  I deboard the train in Hartsdale and climb down the platform, look up and in front of me is the The Irish Bank Bar and Restaurant.  

I close my eyes and pinch myself to make sure I am awake and not dreaming. I am certain that I boarded a plane in Dublin, Ireland 12 hours ago and landed in NYC, so why does this sign say The Irish Bank Bar.  I can’t help myself and walk across the street and go in and ask where I am.  All the workers speak in a heavy Irish accent which confused me even more.  So, I order a pint of Guiness. And yes, I am in Hartsdale, NY.

I got here because a friend of a friend who is very ill and is also losing her sight due to macular degeneration needed a little assistance for a short period of time. The task at hand are mostly administrative and effortless to handle.

They reached out knowing I had no plans except to travel and thought perhaps I would fancy traveling to NYC for a month or so.  I carefully assessed all the pros and cons of going and the pro’s won. On the top of the pro’s list was that my daughter lives in NYC and I would be close by.  And we all know NYC is like another foreign country!

My first week in NYC I read that Fr. Michael Schmitz an American Roman Catholic priest from Duluth, Minnesota will say mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan the next week. He is a speaker, author, and podcaster and is most notable for his social media presence, which mainly consist of his YouTube videos and The Bible in a Year podcast.  He is noted for his wonderful sense of humor. He is a renowned priest in catholic circles.

I decide to attend and so did 4,000 other people from all over. I arrived early and had a perfect seat up front and next to about 50 nuns. It was a few days after the Israeli conflict and Father Mike offers the mass up to all those suffering in the entire region.  After mass the streets are closed off and 4,000 unify in a procession around the building outside in prayer. Needless to say, the cathedral, the mass and procession were astonishing and incredible.

Later that week I learn that just a few blocks from where I am staying is the oldest operating pet cemetery in the world. Over 5 acres founded in 1896 by a NYC veterinarian who buried his own dog on his apple orchard, then opened it up to others. The oldest monument is dated 1899, which says “Daisy our beloved dog.” It is the only pet cemetery listed on the national register of historic places and ranked in the top 10 cemeteries in the world.

It is the eternal home to over 80,000 pets. Not only dogs and cats but rabbits, birds, turtles, monkeys and even a few horses and a lion. A few famous pets are buried there. Maria Careys dog, Elizabeth Ardens cat and the 27^th vice president, James Sherman under Taft, buried his dog there. Princess Lwoff Parlaghy was a Hungarian artist who bought a lion cub from Ringling Brothers Circus and took him to live with her at the Plaza Hotel. After his death, he received a wake at the hotel and was buried in Hartsdale in 1912. 

During World War I, thousands of dogs were trained to find wounded soldiers. The service dogs were given a monument at Hartsdale: a ten-ton boulder of granite from Barre, Vermont, topped with a bronze statue of a kerchief-wearing dog with a dented helmet at his feet. The cost of the monument was raised by donations.

There is no better time to visit a pet cemetery than Halloween week and so I go. Beautiful headstones and monuments. Some of the written sentiments on the headstones make me tear up. Then I go home and read Stephen King’s Pet Sematary which was a best seller in 1983 and made into two movies. This is followed by several nights of nightmares living near a pet cemetary and I list it as one of the “cons” of this move.

 “TRAVEL IS NEVER A MATTER OF MONEY, BUT OF COURAGE”
– Paulo Coelho

 “With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding.”
– Sandra Lake