ANY mature Guyanese, whether visiting from the heart of the countryside or from not so distant rural communities, or better yet, resident in the city, particularly in the Southern wards of Georgetown, would recall the pristine magnificence that had been the Le Repentir Cemetery.

Whether from the parallel western located St. Stephen Street; the northern roadway, Princes Street; the Southern pathway of Sussex Street; or from the Eastern end of Cemetery Road – one had a clear bird’s eye western view of the country’s largest cemetery. Even the view from the latter roadway, to the further east, was all the way clear, with the graves in clear view, as far as the eye could have seen.

Though a place of the dead, as it still is, and will continue to be, its environment could have been likened to a garden of serenity, in which many of our family members and close relatives, friends, and numerous distinguished Guyanese of historical note have been interred.

This extends to a former British, colonial governor and his wife, just also opposite the collective resting site of a Scottish family of seven that drowned on a Good Friday while swimming at an interior location.

All these long-departed are resting in peace in grounds that were daily tended to by a fixed staff that, with the use of grass knives, scythes, and cutlasses, ensured that the grass was kept to very low levels among the graves, and even in those spaces that any remains had not been interred.

On both sides of the road there were towering palms and well-tended hedge rows, along with circular beds of colourful flowers along the entrance from Princes Street that added a garden-like ambience that reduced the feeling of being in a place of the dead.
Also, the support roads were well-paved and maintained, and canals were all cleaned, regularly.

From a tranquil place where many family members were known to visit the graves of their loved ones, to sit on the latter and reminisce, and also place a fresh flower and, where also tombs were painted on special occasions, the cemetery gradually metamorphosed to a thick forested jungle, with the graves soon disappearing among strongly rooted vegetation.
Canals, bordering, and within the cemetery, became choked with vegetation, becoming home to reptiles that were frequently observed within the cemetery itself. Added to this, were the internal roads which in an advanced state of neglect, eroded, to the state of becoming muddy whenever there was a passing shower.

As a further insult to those buried, the landfill site’s tonnes of garbage, spilled on to the many graves in its immediate surroundings.
In this hell-like milieu, death took on an increased frightening spectre.
While we will not tarry at the obvious reasons for this descent to abject neglect, because of its well documented causes, it should be emphatically stated that what had occurred, occasioning this abysmal state of the cemetery was nothing else but shocking and deliberate neglect on the part of the powers that be at that material time, since it was obvious that the City authorities no longer possessed the financial means to support a maintenance staff that had been needed, and still does.

It was painful for the numerous Guyanese who returned to visit, and even those locally resident, that were denied access to the resting place of their loved ones because of impenetrable vegetation.

Fast forward, and a restoration initiative is underway, one that has been implemented, it seems, to give impetus to efforts that commenced in 2015. Marked progress has been made, but issues such as the badly cracked tombs, caused by the huge trees that took root among the latter, as well as those that have been badly scarred by burning of vegetation, must be addressed.

There should be no attempts to employ the use of weedicide for the suppression of vegetation, as such can only harm the surrounding environs, especially residents, water reservoirs and its marine life. Such a risky strategy, if done, will also remove the natural green, so critical for the preservation of our environment.
Among the challenges will be those deeply rooted tree stumps that still remain among the tombs, and which will have to be addressed, since vegetation will grow again, despite removal.

While restoring the Le Repentir Cemetery to its former aesthetics will be no easy task, because of some of the issues alluded to, daily maintenance will be the key to a cemetery that restores the honour to the remains of those already there, as well as according respect to those to come. This, we opine, is better done by a permanent staff assigned to such duties.

Since most of us from the City of Georgetown will be laid to rest in its prescribed grounds, we must all ensure that this hallowed space is in a state of constant readiness for such a solemn moment, whenever. This is best done by the reminder that such works entail ready amounts of finance; citizens are therefore reminded that this can only be done by a willing commitment to honour their civic obligation.