On 22 November a memorable event
took place. For the first time a ‘Brontë’ delegation paid homage to Martha
Taylor and Julia Wheelwright, the two Yorkshire friends of Charlotte and Emily
who died in Brussels in 1842.
Martha’s death especially was a
big loss for Charlotte. She quite often visited her grave in her second year in
Brussels. That cemetery has long gone, and it was only recently that the
reburial place was located.
Sue Lonoff and I had arranged to
meet that day in (my beloved) Brussels. It was my first visit to the city since
I was in America. It was there that I heard about the discovery. Renate
Hurtmanns had solved the problem that had bothered me for some 20
years!
Renate herself joined us at
Central Station, for the bus to Evere cemetery. And a few stops before reaching
the destination Helen joined us too. At a flower shop close to the entrance we
bought a bunch of red and white roses. The weather was lovely, it was a perfect
late autumn afternoon, especially for a cemetery visit. And there was the
additional pleasure of walking on or through tons of fallen leaves.
The remains of those buried of the
old Protestant cemetery (those without a ‘concession’) were anonymously, without
gravestones, reburied along a 150 meter stretch of the boundary wall on the east
side of the cemetery. Certainly a nice place to lie buried. Somewhere in the
middle the flowers were laid by Helen and Renate, for the girls who died 170
years ago. Charlotte would have been pleased no
doubt.
