Introduction

I never really went to cemeteries when I was younger.  At the time, none of my family was buried where I grew up in South Carolina.  Both family lines were back in rural northern New York.  Then my paternal grandfather died. Then my paternal step-great (in every sense of the word) grandmother.  Then one of my best friends died during our freshman year of college. His death was a complete shock to me.  Young people didn't die.  Grandpa and Grandma T. I could understand.  A 19 year old didn't make sense. Then other friends died during our college years.

I went out occasionally to cemeteries to "see" and "talk" to them.  Especially Wesley.  He was always my sounding board.  Then my mother died of a brain aneursym.  COMPLETE SHOCK.   She died the day before her 47th birthday.  My father wanted to make sure he picked a location we girls would remember when we would visit (right by the sidewalk).  It had bothered him on a trip the previous year he could not easily find his parents graves.  He said he wanted to make sure we didn't have that same issue.  So when I went to visit the cemetery, I would talk and cry and cry some more.  Both parents are now gone and I still can't go to their cemetery without crying.

I signed up for Find-A-Grave and then forgot about it.  It was about a year later and since I didn't feel like cleaning  I decided I would go take a volunteer picture.  That first visit to Monocacy Cemetery in Beallsville, Montgomery County, Maryland was all it took.  I was now a tadophile!!

This blog will deal with the cemeteries I am encountering in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and wherever else I land in my personal journey!! This blog will showcase the photos and a bit of "their" stories.  I am curious when I take the photos about the people now gone.  Sometimes I can find out more with some research, other times I can find nothing.  Growing up my family loved the commentator Paul Harvey whose famous line was "And now you know the rest of the story".  I may not know the rest of the story but I will post what I do find.  After all, we all must pay it forward when possible.

Happy Cemetery Journeys!!!