A woman taking a walk in a cemetery

If you follow Green Point Avenue to the east, you will find Calvary Park Cemetery along the BQE road. Tombstones stand in order, just as Manhattan buildings line up. Sometimes I go to the park and read tombstones and stay in quiet tranquility.

Looking at the name of the deceased, I take a walk through the graveyard, guessing which country his ancestors were from, when he was born, and how long he lived and died. The tombstone born in 1700 can also be seen sometimes. I wiped the glass dust of the mausoleum windows and looked inside. Drawers are piled up.

A drawer containing a coffin after someone's death has been marked with a name and the year of his birth. There are also empty drawers to enter when someone in the family dies. When I die, I know nothing, but I don't want to go into this dark, cold drawer.

Walking through the park's graveyard, I feel like I entered a village in the middle of the century. There is a church in the center to console the dead. There is a row of large and small mausoleum around the church. A high stele engraved with a carving follows it, leading to small tombstones. The closer I get near BQE, the smaller the tombstones are. Perhaps the high Mausoleum where I can see Manhattan skyline is expensive. I haven't seen a tombstone with a Korean name on it yet.

The rich are buried in a mausoleum built of heavy stone, even when they die. The dead without money are buried as if they were dumped on the highway. The dead souls will hide quietly in broad daylight, and as the night goes on, they will come out and move like we live. Souls who have died a lot of money will enjoy the colorful party, and souls who have died without money are in the form of a community that is serving the rich souls.

Catholic Italians are buried a lot in Calvary Cemetery. A few years ago an Italian friend living in my neighborhood lost her girl. She didn't want to bury her daughter far away, so she buried in this cemetery near her house. She often walks in and out of the cemetery, complaining that the site is too expensive. It is different from Koreans who visit ancestral graves only on special days. The relationship with the dead soul doesn't seem as far away as we are.

I have thought death was the end and the eternal rest. Death at the Calvary Cemetery is another extension of life and a struggle.