FRIENDSHIP CEMETERY

One of the many wonderful benefits of growing up on a farm was the absence of boundaries.  Alone, or with friends, I was free to roam and explore our small town and the surrounding countryside.  Less than a mile from our farm, and easily reached by bike or pony, were the Donato brother’s orchards with delicious apples and peaches hanging from the trees begging to be picked. Just beyond the northern edge of the orchards was the Friendship church and cemetery. The white clapboard one-room church was nestled under the umbrella of a stand of old Oak Trees.  Nearest the church were the time worn headstones from the mid 1800s.  Somewhat later came the stones with familiar names, including my grandmother, Angelina Renzulli, her two children that did not survive infancy, and my uncle Marx Renzulli.

At the entrance to the cemetery was a hand pump that with a little effort would produce the coolest, sweetest water to quench the thirst that accompanies bike rides on hot summer days.  I don’t know if it was the cool water, the shade from the Oak trees, the sweet fruits just a stone throw away, or the white Jersey sand beneath my feet, but that small spot in the midst of the south Jersey woods and truck farms was like an oasis for me; and it still is. Over the years other family members would join my grandmother: my grandfather, an uncle, 2 aunts, 2 cousins, and most recently, my mother and father, next to whom my own piece of real estate is reserved.

Since moving to Kentucky I don’t get back to Friendship as often as I used to, but when I do, I still feel the magic of the place, and my entire life feels compressed into one moment in time.

Returning there several years ago I was saddened to see that the orchards had been abandoned.  The once proud rows of fruit laden trees were now dead or dying in neglected fields overgrown with weeds and shrub trees.  The church, no longer serving a parish, remains well kept, and the cemetery continues to serve the community.  But the magic remains. 

Friendship Church - watercolor rendering by my artist friend, Julio Rodrigues