Yep! I really do! Walking through a cemetery, looking at the symbols on the headstones, finding beautiful statuary, looking at dates, the epitaphs, the grounds, I pretty much love it all. You can really discover a lot about a place and it's history by it's graveyards!
I believe that it all started when I was a kid. Every Memorial day we would get up early, (I'm from AZ you have to beat the heat!) And we would go to the cemetery where my Great Grandparents were buried. My whole extended family would go and we would visit their graves. We would take new flowers, pull weeds, rake the gravel and dirt and try to make it look really nice. It was about remembering them and their lives, and honoring them. Even though I never met them in this life, it helped me to feel close to them. As my Grandparents passed away, they were laid to rest there in the family plot, and we just brought more flowers. My husband's family was from the same area, so he has 4 generations buried in the same cemetery, so after we were married, we started visiting those graves, and working to fix them up too. Even more flowers! The family enjoys each others company, and we go out to breakfast afterwards. There's never been a memorial day in our family that some part of the family hasn't been there. It's important to us. The cemetery to me is about honoring and remembering the people we love and have lost. I always go to a cemetery with reverence and with a thought about the lives of all the people there. It's not scary to me. It's full of people who lived and were loved. I've been told by a few people "to be careful, you don't want a spirit to attach to you", but I always say, "I come with reverence and respect, they know I'm a friend."
When our family is on a trip, and we know some ancestors are buried near, we make sure to find the cemetery and locate their graves. I've even been know to take silk flowers in my suitcase on a flight to Mississippi, because I knew we'd be stopping to see the grave of my husbands ancestor. We always seem to stay and look at many headstones while we are there. On Vacations we look to see what cemeteries are there or surrounding areas and love going to visit. Sometimes we purposely vacation in a place just to see the cemeteries! My kids and husband love them too, what can we say?
Stones, Bones and Shadows will be a podcast about all kinds of cemeteries, graveyards and burial sites.
I'll be telling you stories of the people buried there. The famous, infamous, and everyday folks like you and me. Because, people are all interesting, and we all have a story!
Every little town, big city, State and Country have stories, and each cemetery has a story of it's own.
I love History, it is fascinating and often times stranger than fiction! So, I'm going to take you to sites all over the world to visit crypts, cemeteries, cathedrals and so much more. If there's someone buried there we are going to visit it! We will dive into the customs, symbols, and burial practices. Not to mention, superstitions and ghost lore. Get ready to explore with Stones, Bones and Shadows.
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