On a sweltering July day in West Augustine, at the San Sebastian Cemetery, towering oaks offered a family the coolness of their shade.
Lillian Holloway, along with her husband and young son, stood beneath the extended branch of an oak tree. She leafed through old black-and-white images of her ancestors from previous generations.
She resides in Texas, and during her time there, she came across an article detailing the West Augustine Improvement Association’s efforts in cleaning the cemetery and raising funds for new headstones. One of these headstones belonged to Artemisia Holloway Jones. The inscriptions on it were not made of stone and were deteriorating.
Holloway remembered, “I was thinking, ‘I know Artemisia! Those are my people. I recognize them! They aren’t just names I came across. I recall stories about these individuals!'”
So Holloway, along with her husband and son, traveled from Texas to St. Augustine this summer. It was a location they had only heard about.
Positioned in the 19th-century segregated cemetery, she placed her hand over her heart and said, “I wanted to be here to witness this. It truly touched me.”
Not only is the grave of her great aunt Artemesia located here, but also that of her great aunt Teresa and her great-grandfather Abraham. He was born just months following the Emancipation Proclamation.
“I recall hearing the tale as a child that he was the youngest of his mother’s children and the only one who remained with her,” Holloway mentioned. “They were all taken away” as slaves.
On this day, members of the West Augustine Improvement Association came together at the cemetery to greet Holloway and her family.
“She is authentic. She didn’t come here for anything other than to just visit,” said Willie Cooper of the West Augustine Improvement Association.
Holloway also came to bring her father back together with his father, and with his father.
She held two containers in her hands. “These are the remains of my grandfather,” she said with a smile.
Holloway carried the remains of her grandfather and father to be scattered on her great-grandfather Abe’s grave, who was the first in his family to be born free.
Prior to scattering the ashes, she had her son stand beside her and read a message she wished him to hear. She talked about Abraham’s birth, the lives of his children, and then her father. She was delighted to have her own son. And in that moment, five generations were present on that single patch of land.
Holloway became emotional and stated, “Even in a cemetery, I am not overwhelmed by sadness but by hope.”
It’s the sort of hope that her ancestors longed for in their pursuit of freedom…the hope she holds for her son…and the hope that strangers feel when they restore a cemetery filled with individuals whose lives deserve to be remembered.
For additional details regarding the West Augustine Improvement Association, click here.
