{"id":3043,"date":"2013-07-10T15:57:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T19:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2013-07-24T16:40:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T20:40:48","slug":"growing-together-the-aurora-cemetery-corp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/growing-together-the-aurora-cemetery-corp\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Together: The Aurora Cemetery Corp."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Auroran continues its series of some of Aurora\u2019s oldest businesses with a look at the Aurora Cemetery Corporation.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a child, April Ross always told her mother that when she grew up she would be \u201crunning the elevator to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it goes without saying that her parents didn\u2019t take what she said literally, but Ms. Ross took her childhood aspirations as literally as possible. Ms. Ross now runs the day to day operations of the Aurora Cemetery, one of Aurora\u2019s most venerable businesses. <\/p>\n

Founded in the southern end of Town in 1869, the original plot of land has served generations of local families, and continues to do so to this day.
\nFor Ms. Ross, and the Cemetery\u2019s administrative assistant Cindy Angers, it is a place of serenity and tranquility in an increasingly bustling community. It\u2019s not rare for Ms. Ross to be found at the peak of the cemetery\u2019s highest hill looking down at the history around her. It also affords her the opportunity to see every corner of the property in the quickest of glances. <\/p>\n

Considering Aurora Cemetery is the only game in Town, it almost seems counterproductive to ask why April and Cindy think their company endures, but they nevertheless have a few insights. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all in how you deal with people,\u201d said Ms. Ross. \u201cCindy and I work with people who have lost loved ones and are often very angry. We get people in here who accept it and they are easy to deal with, but we have to wear many, many hats.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cA gentleman said to me on Tuesday when he came into purchase that one thing about this cemetery after looking at others, they are just flat, but here it has hills and is more in keeping with a beautiful cemetery atmosphere,\u201d added Cindy.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Aurora\u2019s early settlers and contemporary notables have chosen the Yonge Street location as their final resting place. Beyond the buildings many people are familiar with, particularly the octagonal white and green \u201cDead House\u201d \u2013 which was once used to store the remains of people who died over the winter before the thaw \u2013 is the well-loved monument to John W. Bowser, Construction Superintendent of the Empire State Building. His tombstone can be easily found, constructed in the shape of the iconic Manhattan landmark. There are also graves bearing names which can be found on many landmarks and streets throughout the Town. <\/p>\n

Many of the historical figures are buried in the north end of the cemetery. But with these plots maxed out in internment rights, the Cemetery recently opened up their south end for internments. Ms. Ross estimates this will continue to serve the community for the next 60 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of historical interest with the people who come here,\u201d she says. \u201cThey like to walk around [looking at names] and also whole families being wiped out in the early 1900s from smallpox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those, however, were very different days and challenges facing the Aurora Cemetery today include ensuring each interment is handled as sensitively as possible, but also addressing people\u2019s changing perspectives of what they want to get out of their cemetery. <\/p>\n

These include increased desire for more individual and distinctive monuments, as well as areas serving distinct nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, such as cemeteries marketed towards people of specific religion and ethnicities in the Greater Toronto Area. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat won\u2019t happen on my watch,\u201d says Ms. Ross with a laugh. \u201cEveryone is welcome because we\u2019re all equal. It doesn\u2019t matter where we\u2019re from or what colour we are, everyone goes together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to tell my mum I would be running the elevator to heaven \u2013 and I am! God put me here for a reason and everything does happen for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir The Auroran continues its series of some of Aurora\u2019s oldest businesses with a look at the Aurora Cemetery Corporation. As a child, April Ross always told her mother that when she grew up she would be \u201crunning the elevator to heaven.\u201d Perhaps it goes without saying that her parents didn\u2019t take what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/2013-07-10-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-N5","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 15:42:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}