Bonaventure Cemetery

In an obscure way, Bonaventure Cemetery defines Savannah -- it is a complex, wonderful, yet haunting place. As Savannah is rich in culture, so is this burial place. As cemeteries are solemn in nature, Bonaventure seems even more so. On a warm breezy afternoon, strolling amongst the headstones and mausoleums, shaded by moss-filled trees, one does not feel alone. They are here -- whispers.


Prior to my first visit, a friend suggested I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as preparation. I did. And thanks to my friend's advice, Savannah came to life before my visit -- and so remains. I am now hooked on sweet tea and grits. Collard greens. Pre-Revolutionary, Revolutionary, Civil War history. Southern culture, antebellum mansions, low country boil.

Now if you're familiar with Midnight, you'll know who or what the "Bird Girl" is. If not, she is a bronze statue which used to stand within the Trosdal family plot at Bonaventure -- and was popularized on the cover of the book. Due to family concerns about increasing foot traffic at the grave site, the "Bird Girl" was removed and now stands in Savannah's Telfair Museum of Art.

All is not lost, however. Even with celebrity departed, Bonaventure's varied and distinct statuary, though nameless, remains alluring, profound -- unique amongst American cemeteries. Each appears ready to deliver a personal predestined message, awaiting re-acquaintance with family and friends. Even discovery by the curious. Yes, welcome tourists.

Bonaventure Cemetery is a large, sprawling site, with its historic section located along the bank of the Wilmington River. Here, marked burials date back to the early 1800s. It is also assumed French soldiers are buried on the grounds, pre-dating the 1800s, since they occupied the site during the Revolutionary War. Their assault on British troops in Savannah did not actually go well, their retreat hasty. Certainly some passed into eternity and remain, sans mémorial, in Savannah's Elysium.

Bonaventure Cemetery is a place which I must visit, drawn to stoically, when I'm in or around Savannah. With the resting dead, life is here. This place talks, these stones talk -- to me, at me. Not audibly, of course. But here, the conversations are ongoing -- everywhere. Endless stories, eliciting a full range of mental images and subsequent emotions -- all trying to connect with some form of coherent meaning. Birth, life, death -- at its conclusion, always much too abrupt. I cannot help but sense all hope lies here as well, anticipating resurrection.

Monuments. Statues. Whispers. Or is it just me?