This evening I transcribed a few records from Springvale Botanical Cemetery on BillionGraves. My grandparents, and many other family members, are buried there although their markers have not been photographed yet.
Thinking about the lawn where my grandparents are buried, I remembered a strange incident that once occurred there.
It was the 80s – maybe 1985 or so. Although we lived interstate we visited Melbourne regularly and usually stopped by my grandparent's grave site. Springvale Botanical Cemetery is huge – 422 acres according to its website. The grave is in the middle of a wide lawn. All around were other lawns, monumental areas and empty land.
There was no-one else in sight.
There was no building or vehicle nearby.
We were alone.
In this broad, empty space we heard a most unexpected sound...
A phone ringing!
I realise that if you are Gen Y or younger that will not sound remarkable at all. Nowadays if that happened all sorts of plausible explanations would come to mind. Perhaps a visitor to the cemetery had dropped theirs? Maybe someone was accidentally (or otherwise) buried with their mobile phone? Can you get coverage 6 feet under? But remember, this was the 80’s. My quick, unverified internet research suggests that the mobile phone was introduced to Australia in 1987. They were huge, they were expensive. You would not leave one in a cemetery. I don’t think we were aware such things even existed.
I have no idea to this day where that ringing phone could have been.
Perhaps this is not quite the spooky ghost story you imagined when reading the title of this post… but it was strange, and it did happen in a cemetery.
