Dear Editor,
Professor Mary Noel Menezes, esteemed Guyanese historian, author, educator, Roman Catholic Nun and an Emerita Professor died on August 31, 2022. Le Repentir Cemetery where she will be laid to rest on September 7 is in a deplorable state. Her religious community must pay approximately $200,000 to clear the path to her tomb since the area is littered with garbage, human faeces, animal carcasses and discarded vehicle parts. It was a similar situation last November when another Religious Sister of Mercy was laid to rest.
It will take more than five persons to clean the area and weed the grass which is now shoulder high. As a historian, Sr. Menezes greatly valued our national and cultural artefacts and would have been disgusted at the current state of the cemetery. It is appalling that the main cemetery in the city would be allowed to fall into such a state.
The fact that people are using the cemetery as a place to dispose of household and commercial garbage is deeply troubling. Where is the respect for the sacredness of Le Repentir? When she was alive, Sr. Noel would write our political leaders to raise matters that were of grave concern to her as a citizen. In like manner she would have penned letters to anyone who mattered in relation to the current state of Le Repentir Cemetery. It seems only fitting that as sisters and members of her religious community we too must raise our voices to honour her memory and her activism. There really is no excuse for what is happening at Le Repentir. If nothing else, it is a sad reminder of how our dysfunctional politics is negatively impacting life and the sacred ritual of burying a loved one. We can and must do better.
Respectfully,
Sr. Julie Matthews, RSM
