Nether Alderley

[poliphilo]

In Nether Alderley churchyard I met a woman who was sweeping her own grave. She hadn't been in it yet, but she'd reserved the spot and put down a little square stone as a marker. The stone was incised with the family name. There were other stones round it- most of them covering properly dead people. The stones were in the shadow of the tower and nest-building birds had been dropping twigs on them. Most of the properly dead people had been her friends. " They were a sociable lot," she said. "They liked parties. My husband and I joke about them coming out in the middle of the night to have cocktails." 

Comments

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Both of my grandmothers had graves, with engraved stones in place, years before they died. My paternal grandmother thought it funny.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

None of my grandparents have any kind of marker that I'm aware of.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Really? None at all?

The graveyard in which all four of mine lie is also the final resting place of two great-grandparents, one great-great-grandfather, and one great-great-great-grandfather. They all have markers.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We had them all cremated and that- so far as I'm aware- was the end of it. Perhaps their names are recorded in some Book of Remembrance somewhere, frankly I'm not interested.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

My parents had their plot bought and ready for years. Dad died first and when his stone was put in so was my mom's minus any inscription. They wanted matching stones.
:)
It's a healthy attitude towards death, I think.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My father's ashes are in the local churchyard with a small marker. My mother will join him there, I suppose.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a woman with a good realistic attitude to life and death! In fact, she almost sounds medieval in her meticulous preparations.