NORTH SMITHFIELD – Volunteers have made significant progress on the scattering garden at Hotchkiss Cemetery. Here are some updated pictures from Monday and Tuesday’s work. Memorial stones are expected early next week.
Here’s our original story.
NORTH SMITHFIELD – Back in 2017, say local cemetery advocates, the view of the Hotchkiss Cemetery next to the Union Cemetery was almost entirely blocked by underbrush and weeds.
Slowly but surely, those people buried here have been given the respect they deserve, say those residents and volunteers, and now the cemetery, located next to Union Cemetery on Smithfield Road, is going to its next stage.
Owners of the Holt Funeral Home in Woonsocket have partnered with the cemetery volunteers to create a new scattering garden, with flowers and bushes installed and cared for by plant expert Liane Jalette, and volunteers completing various other aspects. Families who choose cremation for their loved ones lost will be able to spread their ashes here.
Steve Biron showed up on Tuesday with his heavy equipment to help create a new flat stone area for two new monuments, which Holt Funeral Home co-owner Amy Noble said the funeral home will engrave with the names of those laid to rest here.
Anyone who spreads ashes here and wants the name of their loved one engraved onto the stones need only to reach out, and they don’t have to have had their funeral through Holt, said Noble.
“That way everyone can be memorialized,” she told The Local Insider. “They deserve that.”
They’ll only be charged a fee for the actual engraving, which will happen in groupings annually.
Chris Todd, who now co-owns Holt Funeral Home with Noble and Laura Alden, after the three purchased it from Noble’s mother Cindi Noble, started working with Cindi on the plan for Hotchkiss a couple of years ago, said Amy Noble. Cindi had originally reached out to Richard Keene, of the North Smithfield Heritage Association, about the idea for the scattering garden.
“We couldn’t have done it without the historical association,” Noble said.
Jalette brings a wealth of knowledge on plans, said Noble, and has proven invaluable in creating the garden since last year.
The ashes of six people have already been spread here, said those behind the garden.
When spreading ashes, said Noble and Jalette, it’s very important to only spread them on the stone portions of the garden. Ashes are highly alkaline, they said, and can hurt future plant growth.
As another way of giving back to the community, Holt Funeral Home also paid for vaults at the cemetery for general public assistance burials, or those whose families can’t afford a traditional funeral.
Richard Keene’s brother, Doug Keene, and Ed Walker, who has found and restored many of the old stones in the cemetery over the past few years, were both there to lend a hand on Tuesday.
“He’s done amazing work,” Noble said of Walker.
This has been a true community project, said all of those involved, and they’re incredibly proud of how Hotchkiss Cemetery looks today compared to what it was in 2017. This is meant to be a peaceful and tranquil place, they said, for those who want to be with and remember their loved ones.
