The notice inspired me to go out to Mt. Pleasant Reformed Church and visit the graveyard. There I found several tombstones and monuments tied with yellow caution tape. The tape appeared to have been there for a few months, if not longer.
Seeing the tombstones tied with caution tape reminded me of a story told to me years ago by a colleague in New York. While he and his wife and their two young children were exploring an old cemetery one weekend somewhere in New England, a tombstone toppled over onto his daughter. He rushed over and lifted the stone, freeing the little girl. After it had been determined that his daughter had suffered no injury, he went back to the cemetery and tried to repeat the feat of lifting the stone. He found he couldn't budge it.
Certainly, tombstones in danger of toppling over present a liability risk, but, whether it's done by descendants or cemetery management, can tombstones and monuments marking people's graves really just be removed?
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That cemetery seems to be very well kept. Maybe strict policies such as these are the reason. I didn’t think any of the stones, including those marked with caution tape, looked bad enough to remove, certainly.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, my grandson, Daniel Jersey, participated in a Boy Scout project to straighten and repair tombstones in a cemetery near Sterling, Mass. It was a transformation!
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