An avid taphophile, cemeteries are a place of peace and wonder for me. My grandfather died a month after I was born. From the time I was a month old, most Sundays were spent with Mom, Dad and Grandma visiting Grandpa’s grave. Some of my first photos were taken at Glen Oak Cemetery.
As the story goes, I was about 3 years old. I was playing in my sandbox on the back porch, making little piles of sand. Grandma asked me what I was doing. I replied “Making graves!”
Looking through old photographs I found pictures of my grandparents enjoying summer afternoons in the cemetery. Is it any wonder that when preparing my “what I want to do after high school” essay I chose to interview Ann Cuneo, the neighborhood funeral director. I never did make that dream come true, instead I married, divorced and raised two wonderful daughters. My cousin, however, did become an undertaker. After he was killed in 1988 I again looked into getting into the funeral business, but unfortunately that never came to be.
Having spent much of the past couple of years researching the family history I found myself spending quite a bit of time in cemeteries looking for clues to my roots. One day I came across a beautiful powder-blue colored metal marker. It was that of David Burnham in Glen Oak Cemetery. After taking several photos I continued on with my search. That evening when I got home I did some research on that type of monument. After surfing numerous websites on “White Bronze” markers I became fascinated with the rarity of these monuments and began a summer-long search for these unique markers. This collection of photos is the result of that quest.
As a regular contributor to FindAGrave.com under the user name of SixthSense, I often search Ancestry.com and other genealogy sites in an attempt to find some history for each person that I make a memorial for. I have done the same for the memorials in my books. I feel sad for many of these souls. I wonder if there are loved ones still alive to tell stories of these lives to future generations.
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Me... about 1 yr old
Glen Oak Cemetery
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