Writing prompt – in perpetuity

Arnos Vale Cemetery cat cr Judy DarleyI was walking through Arnos Vale’s Victorian cemetery recently, when a plea for help caught my eye. Apparently, rather than buying a plot, the Victorians’ preferred to rent theirs – I suppose they surmised that they would only need it for a generation or two at most.

According to the sign: “The Victorians often lease family grave ‘in perpetuity’, or for 125 years, with little thought about who would pay for their care after that. Thousands of family graves have been effectively ‘abandoned’ over the past 50 years, so funds for upkeep have ceased.”

What now?!

I immediately pictured countless wraiths being evicted for failing to pay their rent. What form might they take? Where could they go in search of refuge? Who might let them in?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to Judy(at)socket creative.com to let me know. With your permission, I’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com. If you’d like to donate to Arnos Vale Cemetery, visit their website.