The Invisible Mentor

Always Expect the Unexpected

June 24th, 2009 |

: Image by Doug McG. via Flickr

On Father’s Day, after a friend dropped me off at the Davisville Subway Station in Toronto, on impulse I decided to go to Mt. Pleasant Cemetery to take photos. While I was walking the few blocks to the cemetery, a lady told me that she was going on a walking tour organized by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). She explained that they would be pointing out the places where prominent people who helped to shape Toronto were buried.

History was not my favourite subject in school, but as I grew older I appreciated the importance of history and what it teaches us as we move forward. Always looking for content to educate others while educating myself, I decided to participate in the ROMwalks Tour.

Not only did I get a history lesson, but I was able to take some wonderful photos. The Mt. Pleasant Cemetery is not your typical cemetery. It is a place for both the living and the dead and it was designed that way. The designer H. A Englehart said ”Show me your cemetery and I will tell you about your society.” Do you agree with Englehart? Could you get a sense of a place and its people by the look and feel of its cemetery?

When designing Mt. Pleasant Cemetery H. A. Englehart wanted to create a:

Special cemetery that followed the topography of the area
Park-like place that was people friendly
Place where people could walk and job
An open space with no fences around the burial plots (there was one exception, James Michie)
Space with lots of trees

At 200 acres, there are 200 different varieties of trees located in the cemetery.

What comes to mind when you hear the word cemetery? Would you want to jog and walk in a cemetery?

The first time I went to Mt Pleasant Cemetery I was absolutely terrified. While growing up in Jamaica, I associated cemeteries with death and ghosts. Deciding to go to the cemetery to take photos was a way of stepping outside of my comfort zone and doing something that did not feel comfortable. Even though I was not alone on the walking tour I realized that I had nothing to fear. I was fascinated by the people who helped to build Toronto, and I was very proud of them for being socially responsible by giving back to the city. Many of these people were benefactors. Most of the names you will recognize if you are a Canadian. William McMaster donated the funds to purchase the 200 acres of farmland for the cemetery.

When was the last time that you did something that was not comfortable?

A few of the people I learned about on the walking tour include: Timothy Eaton, William Lyon MacKenzie, William M. Christie, Egerton Ryerson and Hart Massey.