fifteen or so feet to the left is a sports field. Not quite Foxtel but a bit of life around the place at weekends. Tuesday 12th Bathurst and Orange were the targets. An overnight trip. A visit to the
Tourist Bureau at Bathurst had I was soon at the
Cemetery. Although I had all the row and plot references I became
confused. The cemetery workmen came to my aid. We located the
section where lots of Mercy Sisters are buried. It reminded me of
those War Graves where all the plots are the same in rows with
geometric precision. There in the midst I noted were two
headstones slightly taller than the others. You guessed it: Aloysius
O’Leary and Louis Hunt were surrounded in death by scores of
devout women. The headstones are in perfect condition and quite
legible. I arrived at the Orange
cemetery just prior to lunch. Again I was
unable to find the graves so I went to Croagh Patrick [Patrician
novitiate 1914 to 1927], took some photos and had lunch.
On returning to the
cemetery I was fortunate once more
in enlisting the aid of the groundsmen who were extremely helpful
and whose local knowledge extensive. Three Brothers here: Cuthbert
Corbishley, Regis Hickey and Stanislaus Meagher. There are three
Mercy Sisters buried close by. The nuns’ headstones and two of the
Brothers’, Hickey and Corbishley, have identical modern metal plaques
of the type found in lawn
cemeteries. One cannot escape the conclusion that the Mercy
Sisters, both here in Orange and at Bathurst, have taken it upon
themselves to look after the upkeep of these graves. There is surely a
great blessing on this charity. [Meagher's gravestone is the large
stone in the background.]I have feelings of thankfulness
in being able to have made this
pilgrimage and in some small way to share in the lives of these men and
to pray at their graves. The experience is a very rich one that I will
carry with me for some time. It was mentioned to me that I must
now write down the directions so that others can follow the trail.
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