Dear Editor,

History reminds us that through the oral and written traditions information and legends are passed on inter-generationally. The moment we cease to educate the now generation about yesteryear events we become dinosaurs and historical dunces.

I happened to pass by Lacovia, St Elizabeth, and stopped by Tombstone. So many know the name to be a place but are ignorant of its historical significance.

There are so many privileges that we enjoy freely that we take for granted. These seem to be small blessings easily overlooked — until we lose them.

Who would have thought how important it is to enjoy flatus that many would perceive to be vulgar and out of order, but don’t do it and you may get your tombstone too.

One of the legends surrounding Tombstone in Lacovia is that Mary Lee, because of her “stushness” when she got the urge to deflate whilst in the company of her friends, held it back and its toxicity poisoned her fatally. So that’s how my grandmother told me that we get the adage, “Let fart be free ‘cause it kill poor Mary Lee.” Subsequently, her husband died and he was buried beside her.

While she used the word, fart, if my grandmother ever heard me using it she would have been charged for child abuse, or I would have had to seek urgent dental attention.

It is ironic that Tombstone is less than a mile from the home of the Member of Parliament for the area and yet he has sought to do nothing to make this a historical landmark. It just lies there as a convenient place for weary travellers to rest and sit as they await their ride, oblivious to the importance of the tombs. I even doubt whether most of the students at the high school just across the street know how significant that spot is. There are some sites in the country, like this one, that could really become tourist stops. Within a mile is the beautiful natural arcade, the seven-mile Holland Bamboo, and within another mile the world-class Y S. Falls This could be an excursion worth anyone’s time and money.

So if you have never been there, the next time you go to St Elizabeth, make Tombstone a part of your itinerary and feel how relieving it is to have the knowledge of this legendary spot.

Dr Burnett Robinson

blpprob@aol.com