After 14 years of digging every week, the cemetery in Beilen has almost completely refurbished. The graves, sometimes from the early 19th century, are, according to the volunteers, one of the few remaining antiquities of the village and so they do everything they can to keep it. The last gravestones will be worked on this week.
Behind the thick beech trees on Torenlaan in Beilen is the oldest cemetery in the village hidden. For a long time there has been no burial, at most exceptionally. But there is work. Every Thursday afternoon.
Lute van de Bult has been given caring for the cemetery early in his life. When he walked over the cemetery with his grandparents and his grandfather saw a dried plant, he grabbed a cup, filled it in the Beilerstroom behind the cemetery and sprinkled it.
Now it is from the bump itself who takes care of the graves. “I worked opposite this in the Bernhardstede and when I looked this way, I saw the entire cemetery deteriorating and I thought that was such a shame,” says Van de Bult looking back. He decided to prevent the deterioration.
According to him, the municipality of Midden-Drenthe gave the last push. “They were (in 2011, ed.) Inteling to clear everything that did not look between now and five years,” says Van de Bult. “But we didn’t let that happen. We kept the leg stiff and we started refurbishing. Here is a piece of history. If you remove this, you will have lost it.”
Did not have experience of the bump and his companions. The first restorations were provisional. As time progressed, the restorers got more knowledge and also more help from the area. For example, the volunteers were regularly offered a special glue for natural stone and also a cup of coffee from the neighborhood. “That gives us the stimulus of pothilise we do it for something.”
The volunteers got a taste for it and do a lot of work. In total, more than 1,500 tombstones have been tackled. “In the beginning we were with twelve, thirteen people. Sometimes it was a very nice place despite the cemetery. Then we have been singing ‘Lang-Zal-Zeven’ here on a birthday. Maybe a little cru.”
Van de Bult looks at the cemetery from a practical point of view. Walking on the paths, his hands start to itch when he sees an emerging maple sprout or a loose stone. He takes it immediately. “I never look at the name that is on it. I look at what does the grave look like and what should it happen?”
From the bump runs to the front part of the cemetery. “Interesting, isn’t it? Here all graves are still with their feet to church. Further on there are completely different structures.” In the cemetery you will find all kinds of graves. Wooden graves that were not allowed to cost anything, large stone structures, but also digging the first patients of Beileroord. It doesn’t matter to Van de Bult. “We make no distinction in people. Whether it was a so -called rich stinking that used to be in the church or it is Jan with the short last name. We are getting the graves where it is needed.”
The last stones are now. And now? The bump is determined. Although he now also runs around 80, he wants to continue as long as he can. “I have the idea of just starting again at the beginning. There are all kinds of graves where the vegetation is coming up again and also graves that have already become so dirty that they need a cleaning again.”