Gately Funeral Home is working in conjunction with the Melrose Rotary Club's Food Drive for the Servant's Heart Food Pantry in Melrose!  You are invited to bring your canned goods and/or non-perishables to the Gately Funeral Home where you'll see a food collection bin in the lobby.  The Rotary Club will have collection bins at Shaw's Supermarket on Saturday, September 10th.

Wyoming Cemetery Expansion Approved -- Lottery to be held
in September  

      An expansion of Wyoming Cemetery will create 246 new grave plots along Lebanon Street near the Ripley School and will be sold through a pre-buy lottery system .  Buying a grave site before one dies has been a common practice for many years.  An advantage to those who don't want to leave this responsibility to their children, this also helps the cemetery manage the inventory of graves.

      The Melrose Aldermen's Appropriations Committee unanimously recommended a $350,000 bond for the cemetery expansion project, which will now go before the full board for final approval.  Mayor Rob Dolan explained that the bond will be paid off over five years through the pre-sale right of burial lottery, which is open to residents of Melrose who have resided in the city for at least 30 years and are at least 70 years old.  Applications will be available in September.

      Approximately 20-25 graves will be pre-sold through the lottery which will be held each year for the next five years, with the balance of the gravesites held for at-need burials.  In other words, About 125 gravesites will be pre-sold over the next five years and about 121 gravesites reserved for deaths as they occur.

      Construction on the cemetery expansion is slated to begin in late August, according to Mike Hughes, Wyoming Cemetery Director, pending final approval.  The lottery will be supervised by the city's Election Administrator, Linda-Lee Angiolillo and held each fall.  For more information, call Linda-Lee Angiolillo at 781-979-4125 or email elections@cityofmelrose.org.

     Until 1828, the people of North Malden, as Melrose was then called, buried their dead in Bell Rock burying ground at Malden Center.  Wyoming Cemetery was officially dedicated in 1857 and was expanded in 1887 to 49 acres with the purchase of the adjoining farm.  Wyoming Cemetery's first superintendent, R. A. Leavett, who served until his death in 1937, was succeeded by his son Linwood, who remained until his retirement in 1942. 

     Major improvements were made in 1937 with the construction of the stone wall surrounding the cemetery by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the filling-in of a small pond near the cemetery center, and the construction of a main administration building and maintenance garage in 1950.  The cemetery boundaries have remained unchanged since the final land acquisition of 1891.  

     The most notable change within the cemetery grounds is the maturing of the many different types of trees, which provide a natural seasonal beauty and peacefulness, thanks to the planning and foresight of its managers.  

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 Frequently Asked Questions  

It's sometimes so difficult when a memory suddenly pops into my head. 
What can I do to ease the grief?

       Memories of a loved one who recently died evoke deep feelings that include sadness and pain ... but other memories bring great comfort and profound healing.  A great resource in dealing with memories is CareNotes, published by Abbey Press.  In it they offer these helpful guidelines for using good memories to heal the grief:  

     Give yourself the best gifts of yesterday.  Reminisce about conversations, family gatherings, and trips; childhood experiences and happy recollections of times with loved ones.  Share these memories with others.  Write a letter to the one who has died and include all the things you were not able to relate when he or she was alive.  Give the news of the day about family members and share your memories on paper.  This can help you grieve quietly and expressively.  "Love leaves behind much more than it takes away."

      Give thanks. It is hard to be thankful and sad at the same time.  And one way of remaining thankful is to treasure keepsakes of those we have loved - to include some of a loved one's belongings into your own life...  Dad's favorite chair or Mom's roses transplanted into your own garden.  Memories that bring us to such feelings of gratitude are nothing less than loving testimony that the life we remember mattered - and continues to matter.

      Choose to h old on to certain feelings - and to let others go.  As time passes following a death, there will be sad memories and recollections, perhaps even traumatic ones.  Letting go of the hurt is a must.  While it may require much time and even professional help to achieve, we can learn how to let these feelings emerge, come face-to-face with them, and then to let them go.

      Reinvest in the future - and in the now.  It is especially important to focus on the positive things in our past and in our lives.  While it may be difficult to do, drive the negative thoughts from your mind by replacing them with positive ones.  Visit someone who could use some company; call someone you haven't talked to in awhile.  Almost all who become wiser and stronger after trauma do so because they develop a sense of purpose that transcends their immediate survival needs and allows them to focus on the future.

      Prayer and ritual can bring a sense of balance and peace.  They give us an opportunity to say good-bye, to express our pain, to adjust to transition, to remember our loved ones, and to place those "remembrances' in the context of the present.  They connect us with our past, define our present life, and show us a path to the future.  

      Gately Funeral Home has an extensive library of CareNotes, which are available on a variety of topics dealing with grief.  You are welcomed to stop in or call us at 781-665-1949 to request one of our caring publications that addresses your concerns.