Last Words

There was a wonderful television program on a few years back that, unfortunately, only lasted a couple of seasons.  It was called "Dead Like Me".   In a nutshell, it was about a group of characters who had died but before they could pass on to wherever they were to end up, they had to work collecting souls.  It was their job to remove a soul just prior to death (their division was accidents and murder as opposed to soul collectors who worked in divisions that dealt with natural death or plagues - death was very organized right down to the post it notes).  Ellen Muth, an actress we don't really see enough of, starred in this with Mandy Patinkin, Callum Blue and Jasmine Guy.

In one rare episode on a day no one was to die, they had to do paperwork.  Mountains of paper, one sheet for each person had to be sorted and recorded.  The character of Daisy asked how were they to sort them, by first name or last.  I agree with Ellen Muth's character's exasperated response to her that sorting by first name is the most ridiculous suggestion ever (but there are people that do it).   Turns out they were to be sorted by "last words". 

Well, that long intro was leading up to my interest in finding unusual epitaphs.  Normally the epitaph is some flowery oftentimes forced rhyme, quote from a pop song or veiled threat that those of us living will soon be following them and should be prepared.

One of my favorites, I found at St. Michael's cemetery, which butts up against the back of Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain.  Where Forest Hills is a vast rolling garden cemetery of many denominations, St. Michaels is clearly European  in nature with uniform rows of closely placed stones and very Catholic.  The stone read:  "He never lived in the gray areas."  I liked that because I tend towards the black and white in my life.  But having read it, I was a little concerned that it might not be viewed all that positively by everyone.

Recently I found this one in Grove Cemetery in nearby Holden MA:

 

"Meet me in Heaven, she said."  I imagine, perhaps too romantically, that these were her last words and that her lover was there at her bedside to hear them. 

Clearly what to put on a headstone is a tough decision generally left for the living.  To use a person's last words is a wonderful idea.  It does makes one hope to have something brilliant and memorable to say at the end with that final  breath.  Unfortunately, it's probably not likely.  I suspect I will say something like..."don't forget the rabbit bites,"  But gee I hope the pet rabbit goes before I do (mostly because he bites the hand that feeds him). 

Simply put:

At Rest

Accepted

Fell Asleep

Edgell Grove Cemetery, Framingham, MA