Mrs. Helen Binney Kitchel's Report on Tomac Cemetery, October 1953

Tomac Cemetery, Old Greenwich, Connecticut. August, 2014. 

No progress can I report, 

and grieving ask your pardon,

For hopes and plans come to naught

Sad cemetery garden.

Grandmother nature shares the blame 

for all the years excesses

Too much rain, too much heat,

The weatherman's poor guesses.

The church has tried to do its share, 

Trim shrubs pull weeds, cut grasses.

We still can find the dogwoods there,

with laurel greens in masses. 

But lawn and trees no longer shine, 

Weeds, vines have taken over 

The deadly-night-shade shrouds the pine 

Bold sumac hides the clover.

But weep not, bless winter's snow 

and springtime's glad emergence. 

Another year our plants shall grow.

We promise there resurgence!

An excerpt of a report on the condition of Tomac Cemetery 

by Mrs. Helen Benny Kitchell 

to the Garden Club of Old Greenwich.

October, 1953