I had to abandon that other naming convention so YOU WIN, ANDREW.
Because after I said goodbye to Mr. Falk at the Winkler archives and reunited with Joe at the Winkler Heritage Museum, she led me to cemeteries that were more in the Altona area.
I could NEVER have found these on my own. Plus, she obtained permission to venture onto these lands. Joe is very amazing.
First my little car followed her little car down a long farm driveway that I’d never dare try on my own. I think the first cemetery we visited was Reinthal. Now, here I’m running into trouble. Because it’s been so long since our adventure and since my notes were non-existent. Except for a flurry of things I tried to record at the very end of my journey before heading home. Which is where I found that I had written “Reinthal”… and it seems to me that that’s what the first cemetery we visited was called. So, to my mind, that’s this place. I think it’s north of Altona.
I have a lot of pictures to show you. IT BEGINS:
It is a very well-kept cemetery. Even the trees are cared for.
I was captured by the very tall trees, and their contrast with the flat open fields beyond. And of course, headstones in the foreground.
Joe pointed out these hand-etched marker slabs. They remind me of the stone my grandpa created for his first son in Neureinland.
Thiessens, I believe they both say…
I don’t know what else to say about this place except that I looked it up in the Rempel-Harms Historical Atlas of the West Reserve and they wrote: “Reinthal as such is no longer functioning as an organized village,” and I would say their assessment is fairly accurate.
Onward!