Thinking ahead

I was going for a normal short bike ride this morning (short means 8-10 miles, around 45 minutes), when I was diverted from my route by an open gate, leading to the West Laurel Hill Cemetery. I live about 200 yards from that cemetery, but had never ventured inside. Today, though, the open gate looked inviting, the trees and flowers were beautiful, and in I went.

I've always liked cemeteries, in a certain distanced sort of way. I'm neither afraid of death nor wishing for it, so in my detachment I tend to observe them in an aesthetic kind of way. This is a big cemetery on a hillside, so it winds in and around and up and down, and I did not see another soul (so to speak) except for a couple of cars. So it was quiet and calm and I could observe the wide variety of ways that people decide to mark where their former bodies are buried.

Most of the gravestones were of the typical size, and had one big name, the family name I guess, and then one or more smaller ones. There were also markers that looked like benches, family crypts that looked like miniature house or churches, big pointy obelisks and a couple with windows (I didn't stop to peer in).

Some were very old world, like the Erlich stone marking a couple, where the inscription John. H. Erlich, 1874-1931, and His wife, Elizabeth. Some what sayings, like "May my life's deeds be my memory," or, less piously, "Cocktails at Six." One guy, and I'm not making this (or any of the rest of it) up, had a big crypt type thing that said, simply, George F. Browning, DDS. Yes, the thing he wanted to be remembered by was that he was a dentist. His momma would be so proud, except she's probably buried next to him.

I must admit that it makes me think a bit about how I want my entrails (remains sounds so euphemistic, don't you think?) disposed of. My favorite take on it was from the British comedy revue, Beyond The Fringe, and their bit "The English Way of Death," where one man describes how his father wanted his ashes scattered at the beach at Brighton on a holiday weekend. I might like that. I was also wondering if I could get a gravestone that's not grey. Is there a rule about that? Why not blue? Another thought is to have a tree planted above me, so that if for some reason they needed to exhume me that they'd have to untangle me from the roots first.

Hopefully, I don't have to think about this for a while. But if for some reason I do pass suddenly, people can feel free to use this post as their guidance.