Fredericton — Shortly after the news broke that St. Dunstan’s Hermitage Cemetery is reinforcing the riverbank to ensure the graveyard does not sink into the St. John River, local entrepreneur Daniel Shewan announced that he will be taking his revolutionary new cemetery in the opposite direction.
“While I understand why some would want to keep their deceased on dry land,” said Shewan, “I personally feel that we oughtn’t stand in the way of progress.”
Shewen’s new cemetery, called Passing Waters, will be situated on the north side of Fredericton, and inside the St. John River. In order to keep the bodies in place, he says that they will have each coffin tied to a chain weighted down by an anchor. Unfortunately, he has yet to work out a solution to stop the buoy-bound grave-markers from floating away from their respective caskets, and he also admits that keeping up the site will require a great deal of ingenuity.
“Sure, gravesite maintenance will be much more dangerous on the water,” said Shewan. “But if an accident does occur with one of our workers, at least it’s a cheap funeral.”
Among the many benefits of having a floating cemetery, friends and family of the deceased can not only visit, but also swim and frolic with their dead loved ones.
“My kids just love their weekly dip with Grandma,” said Louise Nealie, the first person to buy a plot at the cemetery. “Since getting the chance to reconnect, they now say that they can see her everywhere. Usually late at night, in their dreams.”
While the concept may be gaining traction in the city, some still feel that it is disrespectful to the dead to simply float their caskets in the river. Shewan would like to assure these people that the graves are floating in “holy water,” which he says he was able to bless himself, since he is a registered minister on www.themonastary.org.
After it officially opens late-November, Passing Waters will ensure that your loved one will forever rest in peace… with the fishes, seeeeeee?