Today, following in Steve Reed's footsteps, I made it to Putney Vale Cemetery where Sandy Denny is buried. Her voice and her song-writing figured importantly in the soundtrack of my teenage years.
She died a tragic death at the tender age of thirty one. Her only child - Georgia - had been born just nine months earlier. I took a handful of white flowers to Sandy's grave and I popped them in a heavy glass vase that I found tipped over behind her gravestone. With a little water I hoped they might last longer.
That's when I noticed the grave immediately behind hers. It contains the mortal remains of her mother Edna, her father Neil and her brother David. The latter died in a tragic Colorado car crash in 1980 - just two years after his more famous sister.
Her poor dad suffered a huge amount of loss and lived a long time without them.
ReplyDeleteSo sad to have almost the whole family there. It was nice of you to leave flowers.
ReplyDeleteI can not begin to imagine how Neil MacLean Denny lived the 18 remaining years of his life with his wife and both children gone before him. Poor man.
ReplyDeleteWhat sad memories, it almost makes you want to read about their lives. That was a good gesture leaving some flowers.
ReplyDeleteCemeteries can be such interesting places to visit, especially if you have a personal admiration for a dead person.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your post, the name, Sandy Denny, sounded familiar to me. I didn't specifically remember her from my youth. I looked her up. What a tragic life that ended too soon.
ReplyDeleteImmortality is being remembered.
ReplyDeleteA poignant post and a very nice touch with the flowers YP. I have made similar grave visits to Delores Oriordan, Rory Gallagher, Anne Bronte, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad..
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I realized she was buried so near her family -- or if I did, I forgot. Terrible about her brother. Some families really do seem to bear more than their share of tragedy.
ReplyDeleteWell, it looks like others are remembering Sandy and her family also.
ReplyDeleteI guess, essentially, life is a tragedy, but more for some than others. I've never searched for any grave other than relatives, and only then for the genealogical information on them.
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