Dear Ancestor,

Your tombstone stands among the rest, Neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out, On polished, marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care, It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist, You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you, In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse, Entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled One hundred years ago,
Spreads out among the ones you left Who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot, And come to visit you.

Author Unknown


Funeral Etiquette Advice

Don't take a camera to the funeral and snap photos of grieving family members afterward. This makes no sense and it is not appreciated.

Don't tell a grieving family member that they are "now an orphan". Those are not comforting words.

If you stand up to give an eulogy, don't tell the congregation that you were the one who inherited the land.

Dear Ancestor,

Your tombstone stands among the rest, Neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out, On polished, marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care, It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist, You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you, In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse, Entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled One hundred years ago,
Spreads out among the ones you left Who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot, And come to visit you.

Author Unknown


Funeral Etiquette Advice

Don't take a camera to the funeral and snap photos of grieving family members afterward. This makes no sense and it is not appreciated.

Don't tell a grieving family member that they are "now an orphan". Those are not comforting words.

If you stand up to give an eulogy, don't tell the congregation that you were the one who inherited the land.