S T E R L I N G   C E N T E R   C E M E T E R Y

Sterling, New York

Some of the gravestones like these are flush with the ground. After seeing the variety of different headstone styles I start wondering if there's such a thing as "gravestone fashion" where certain styles fall in and out of favor?

How does one accidentally misalign a row of markers? You don't think it settled forward 3 inches on its own, do you?

Some of the newer markers have flowers, some plastic, some real. They all really stand out from all the rest. And I swear I can hear them whispering to me, asserting that someone still remembers them. I then take note and observe the vast majority of the graves are not adorned with flowers of any kind, whether real or fake. It's a little sad, most of the people here have probably been long forgotten. Perhaps their only legacy is having children to pass on their stories but even those stories probably have faded away to nothingness for the majority of them.

But further thinking makes one realize not all is lost. The very people who are alive today should thank not only their parents for their lives but also their entire string of ancestors that have come before them. Giving life through having children is a gift not only to the child but also to an infinity of future generations. So many of these people who lay in this cemetery have not been forgotten at all, rather, they are memorialized every moment of every day by the very lives of their living descendants.

Now that's pretty powerful stuff!