MostlySunny– OK, you’re a hardcore cemetery girl! LOVE Bonaventure, our personal favorite. And when I went to Israel for the first time, I remember asking our guide why they had a graveyard right smack in front of the Jerusalem wall and he said because so many people wanted to be first in line to rise and meet Him when the Messiah returned.

auburn60– Yeah, do NOT mess with the ghost of crazy aunt Lulla Belle! And if I had a dime for every time I have related the story of your cemetery plot/wedding gift… You totally win Best In-law Story!

phwd737– Which cemetery in Hot Springs..?

Gramma Jac– I hear ya, honey!

bettyrwoodward– LOVE that! Would have been a great story if she had actually given birth there!

LindaB– Yeah, I told Madi that ‘destination weddings’ usually include a beach, not graves…

gracelynn– Hope you had a great vacation! I would love to do a Civil War battlefield/cemetery tour.

MEblestME– We go to Leiper’s Fork all the time, Madi has a good friend that lives there– I’ll have to keep an eye open for that cemetery. (Russ and I used to picnic in a little country cemetery all the time when we were dating!)

When I leave this world, I want my stone to read: “I TOLD YOU PEOPLE I WAS SICK!”

I would so love to go to Madi’s wedding in Bonaventure–it’s one of my favorite places. Maybe a setting close to the river near those big columns where the statue of Jesus is?

We love cemeteries around here and have found some really good ones. Some of our family cemeteries are pretty interesting,too. One time Meredith and I were at the graves of my father’s family and I was explaining to her the identity of everyone buried there. I made the statement that my great-aunt Lulla Bell was buried there and that she was’ crazy for her whole life’. The door of my SUV that I had just climbed out of suddenly slammed shut…on a perfectly clear cloudless,windless day. We got in the car and left, but not before I muttered apologies to Great Aunt Lulla Bell. (But she really was mad as a hatter.)

Did I ever mention that my in-laws gave us cemetery plots as a wedding gift?

I love driving along the road and spotting a cemetery on a hill; I always imagine people standing there shrouded in black year after year.

We have a new national cemetery just about a mile from me – The National Cemetery of the Alleghenies. It’s very solemn to drive thru there; such a place of remembrance. And I was intrigued by the national cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii – the “Punchbowl.” The Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor is a cemetery. And Gettysburg. Arlington. And our little Indian cemetery in California were my family is buried; so old and simple.

If you’re ever out west, especially in the gold country of California, those cemeteries are interesting to wander thru. They are not “maintained” much, just scruffy, scraggly humps of dirt. In Virginia City, Nevada, the wind whistles thru; it’s very haunting.

We cemetery people could go on and on!

But the one cemetery I would truly love to go to is the one with no body in it…just outside Jerusalem…the tomb…”He is not here. He is risen!”

Maybe that’s why I love cemeteries. Because one day these graves on earth are going to open up, the sea will give up the dead, the scattered ashes will be gathered…”The dead in Christ will rise first…”

But you know you can find some to laugh at and my favorite one is:
May He Rest In Peace
We Hope

So……Tori, do you just say to Madi, “Let’s do something fun today! Let’s take a day trip to a cemetary!!” And she says YES???

Have you spoken to a professional about your attraction to cemetaries? Just asking….