The Winter Season Begins
Vermont Forest Cemetery has already received over a foot of snow! If this winter is anything like 2023-24, we anticipate many snow/thaw/mud/re-freeze cycles. We remain open for burial 12 months out of the year, but we encourage caution and safety for all visitors.
Here’s what to expect if you wish to visit in winter:
Cemetery Lane and the parking areas are plowed 48 hours after snowfall.
Shepherd’s Trail and the Ring Trail are cleared 48 hours after snowfall.
All other trails will require tall boots, snowshoes, or skis.
Trails are cleared for burials.
Burial days are weather-dependent- if it is not safe, we will postpone the burial.
You are always welcome to visit a grave. If you wish to visit a grave that is not on a cleared trail and do not want to use tall boots/skis/snowshoes to visit, please give us several days’ notice and we will do our best to open a path for you.
The privy is closed for the season.
Tracy Hill, Beaver Meadow and Cram Hill Road are VERY well maintained, but snow tires are essential and we recommend an all-wheel-drive or 4WD vehicle.
Please dress warmly and use common sense and caution if visiting. The Cemetery is on a 1800’ mountain ridge facing the west, and weather is often colder and stormier (and snowier!) than in the valleys.
Tours will become weather-dependent- if it is not safe, we will cancel the tour. Please be sure to check with us the day before and the day of the event, even if you have RSVPd.
For those that will find visiting difficult, we understand. We can send pictures and updates of conditions at gravesites upon request.
Outreach coordinator Jim Hogle will be hosting a monthly Q&A over Zoom, with the first this Wednesday 12/11 at 6pm. Check out the events page on our website to register.
Michelle and Paul are on Family Leave but we’re fully open!
Here’s what’ll be happening while they’re with their little one:
Bailey McLaughlin has been promoted to Cemeterian and will be coordinating burials and keeping things going behind the scenes including lot sales and events. You can contact her by email: bailey@cemetery.eco or call (802) 234-1454
Jim Hogle will be answering general questions, helping arranging visits, arranging screenings, and leading the Zoom Q&As. You can contact him by email at info@cemetery.eco or call (802) 234-1393
Nick Neddo and Steve Amell will be filling in for Paul’s sexton duties.
Michelle’s reflections on one year as Head Cemeterian….
Those of you who have come to the cemetery have heard me talk about the parallels of birth and death. Now it is my turn to experience the first part and I can’t help but realize that this child I will bear is a mortal being. That their life will hopefully be long but is finite. And yet every day that I work in the cemetery, I am surrounded by the life that comes from death and the reminder that we all exist in an endless cycle. I have the privilege to stand at one end of that cycle while shepherding my child through the other. Throughout my pregnancy it has been an honor to work with the families who have come to the cemetery to bury those they love. And it has been incredible to build such a community of stewards who are helping shape the forest for the future. It is exciting to think that the trails we have built are the trails my child will learn to walk on. I look forward to being able to work alongside families and stewards again in the spring.
Paul has a saying “trust your tools,” and that includes the team at Vermont Forest Cemetery as well as the shovels and machines. I can’t begin to express my delight and gratitude in being able to work with Bailey at the cemetery. While it is a bit bittersweet to know that the cemetery no longer needs me to function, I am so proud of the fact that the cemetery is ready for me to take some time off to figure out how to be a mom. From the moment she began as a volunteer Bailey has shown a depth of curiosity and compassion that make her an ideal person to work with the families that come to VFC. You are not in good hands, you are in exceptional hands.
This last year has taught me so much. It has been an honor to travel around the state and to meet so many of you at events and screenings.
I have always known that natural burial is an act of love- a way to give back to the planet and to sustain future generations. But one thing that became abundantly clear this year was how much that love is reciprocated in the cycles of the forest. Our first burials were in the fall as the leaves fell and then through the winter when even the conifers fade to dull green. This spring the leaves returned and the green became vibrant, nourished by those we buried. This summer the forest canopy was so thick we never needed umbrellas. And although our fall was very dry the foliage colors were vibrant and the ferns that grew at the graves persisted as a riot of green until the first hard frost. It is humbling to know that the gift of our bodies to the forest is repaid with such beauty.
I thank each and every one of you for helping to make this possible.
Michelle
A Recollection
I’m kneeling at a freshly opened grave, arranging soft ferns alongside its edges in preparation for a summer burial. The sun filtering through the canopy dapples the ground as I hear a small group of ravens offering their quipped feedback on my decorating. In between each “kraa”, the trickling water just beyond the sheepfold wall joins in and the rush of wind rolling through the enormous white pines refuses to be left out of the conversation. I pause and stand, looking down through the ring and then up towards the sheepfold. It’s only me left in the forest today and yet it’s one of the busiest places I find myself. This soon becomes the rhythm of my life.
The memory of every resident I’d welcomed in and the many who I know only through their stories comes to my recollection. The poet Hanif Abdurraqib comes to mind. He says, “Grief is an emotion knocking at the door of memory and asking you to recall something.” I think about all this forest has asked me to recall over the past year. Each memory as vivid as the next: tears the soil has absorbed like rain, prayers softly resting on top of willow trays, children laughing as they rush to grab the biggest pine bough to cover the grave, a final kiss on a shrouded forehead, sweet honey and marigolds given as gifts from a coven of strangers, the sound of shovels moving rocky soil and labored breath. “You have to get accustomed to burying someone repeatedly, which if not thought of in a way that is generous can be too daunting to live with…It reminds me that I’m losing a person over and over,” Abdurraqib says, “but by losing them, I get to return to the site of their living that I can recall and that is celebratory.”
The forest offers its timeless lesson: to hold space for both sorrow and joy, to grieve and celebrate in the same breath, and to remember that each life, no matter how fleeting, leaves its mark in our forest. I carry the memory of this year—a year of loss, of growth, of connection—with me. And in this place, where the living and the dead are bound by earth and sky, I know that the work of remembrance is never done.
It is a blessing beyond measure.
Bailey
Sharing Our Story Across The State
We want to say a huge Thank You to all the incredible libraries, community centers and churches who have invited us to screen our documentary From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America. In the span of six months we were able to share our story seventeen times - and this is only the beginning!
We are deeply grateful for your support of the Cemetery this past year. While donations to VFC are incredibly helpful and necessary, this giving season please consider donating to one of the local venues that hosted From Earth to Earth screenings this year this year by clicking the buttons below.
Our documentary From Earth to Earth will continue to be shown around Vermont, with screenings in Lincoln and Vergennes in January, and in Castleton later this spring.
While things may slow down over the winter - we’ve still got some great events lined up for December!
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