I thought it was 2001. Turns out it was 2000.
We were working on an expansion project for a Catholic cemetery. We had the general plan worked out and needed to confirm that it was exactly what they wanted as far as lot layout, numbering plan, walkway widths, etc. Then came the dreaded call. They needed four burial spots laid out immediately on the first row. We would be shown precisely where they had to be staked, then we could tell them how to identify them. Within three hours we were onsite. The next morning a 15 year-old boy was interred. He had been playing with a typical group of teenage boys during a small flood event and was pulled into a submerged road culvert where he became stuck. His grave was to be directly across the main driveway from one set of his grandparents rather than a couple hundred feet away in one of the very few burial spots still available in the original cemetery.
I was on my way to check out a current job today one mile further down the road when I pulled in to see how many plots had occupants and headstone futures. Fortunately, business has been slow for them. He has a great headstone with photos of him on a motorcycle and wearing a football uniform and a family picture. Friends have left small trinkets of remembrance despite the 17 year time span.
Being all over a 5 county area daily I have developed a habit over the years of prowling small cemeteries on my lunch break looking for distant relatives. At least two or three times some eagle-eyed busy body called the local deputy to "see what I was up to". One local constable, in Byars, OK, sat and chatted with me long enough for us to realize his great-aunt had married one of my grandfather's cousins. Small world.
I had a helper that worked with me for a number of years that was very vocal about his dislike of my occasional tours through the marble orchards. If I remember correctly his opinion was something like, "that's some sick sh*t, Maynard". It did not deter me. 😉
I do remember a particularly sad headstone that marked the graves of two young folks. They shared the same last name and I assumed they were brother and (older) sister. She was 18 and he was 16. They passed on his 16th. birthday. I could only assume it was a tragic car accident.
I sadly recall that a few years go I was surveying a farm adjacent to a cemetery. I had the subdivision map that separated the cemetery from the church parcel and called for monument were on the far side. Having located them I was walking to a corner along my parcel to look for uncalled for monuments. In a remote corner I saw a small lonely monument with an angel statue. It was inscribed, "Some people dream of angels, we held one in our arms." Below the name was a single date.
I was unable to do any work for more than an hour.
Paul in PA
Nearly 40 years ago we were expanding a small rural cemetery. There was a line of 7 or 8 stones for children with the same last name, All died the same year, possibly around the same time. The year was in the 1880's I believe, so we guessed some sort of fatal epidemic got them all. Something similar happened 100 years ago with the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic.
Its not often that I take pictures on a jobsite, especially pictures of the crew. In the summer of 1985, my youngest brother and another local kid were my helpers. We were staking a new addition to the cemetery and I decided I needed a picture of those two guys with some existing gravestones in the background. A few weeks later my brother and I were at an out of town jobsite and when it was lunch time, he said he wasn't hungry, which I thought was unusual for a young guy. The next day back in town, he went to see his fiances father (a chiropractor) who did some poking around after which he told my brother to go see a medical doctor. Long story short, he was diagnosed with leukemia and a year later, ended up being the first person buried in the new cemetery addition that he helped stake out the summer before. I still have that picture in my office.
One of the things we have found hard to do as a survey company is to give back to the community. In two of the state's, by law or county code, we work in require that burial plots outside of established burials grounds be surveyed. We will do perform them as a way to give back to the community.
I know it sounds strange, but it's a very good way to give back. It's either a good way to help out a family in an extremely hard time or the ability to meet and visit with someone as they share their history and why they are going to pick they spot for their final resting place.
I know it sounds very strange, but it's one of the best ways I have found to use the skills of an LS to give back to the community.
