York, Pennsylvania

Iraq War Flag Memorial:  For each life lost in Iraq, an American flag was added to Prospect Hill. For every Pennsylvanian who made the ultimate sacrifice, a Pennsylvania flag was added near the gateway arch. For every fallen hero from York County, a banner was added along North George Street. The banners put a human face on the toll of war. Prospect Hill Cemetery. [2010]

Martin W. Kondor
Army Specialist
Hellam
Age 20, Died 29 April 2004
Iraq

York, Pennsylvania

Iraq War Flag Memorial:  Down slope from Prospect Hill's American flags were the Pennsylvania standards that honored the Pennsylvanians who gave their lives in the Iraq War. On each flag was an eagle and to each flag was attached a name. In 2010, with the end of the combat mission in Iraq, all flags were removed. Prospect Hill Cemetery. [2010]

Army Pfc.
Joshua E. Waltenbaugh

York, Pennsylvania

Iraq War Flag Memorial:  Memorial Day honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. In York's most prominent cemetery, memorializing our fallen heroes was too much for one day. Starting in 2005, each American life lost in Iraq was commemorated with a flag, and their numbers kept growing through the end of the war: 4,427 American flags honored 4,427 American heroes. Nowhere was the human cost of war more evident. Prospect Hill Cemetery. [2010]

Sulphur Springs, Texas

Screen Capture:  Gone are the days when every church had a cemetery nearby. No longer can parishioners be buried close to the congregation they loved. But, modern tombstone technology has offered some new possibilities. If you can't rest in peace outside your beloved chapel, you can simply bring the chapel with you to the grave. Sulphur Springs City Cemetery. [2012]

Lake Pointe Baptist Church
II Corinthians 5:6-8

Lumberton, North Carolina

Screen Capture:  Where do you spent your time? Where does your mind go even when your body can't follow? The answers betray the real you. Freeze-frame your life in the places that make you part of the living earth. Then, plan to take at least one of those places with you as you cross the finish line. Meadowbrook Cemetery.  [2011]

Meridian, Mississippi

Screen Capture:  How do you want to be remembered? What screen captures you at your best? Start now: Go through your collection of snapshots and pick the one you want on your memorial. If you don't, the decision will be up to your survivors. Magnolia Cemetery. [2013]

We will hold you
in our hearts,
Until we can hold you
in our arms.

Autaugaville, Alabama

Screens That Changed Our Lives ~ The Computer:  The only thing on his memorial stone is a laptop computer. Laptops began appearing in the mid-1980s, but didn't transform home computing until the 1990s. That means he must have been in his 70s by the time he took a liking to computers like this.  Now, both he and the laptop are gone, and the memorial honors both. Rocky Hill Cemetery. [2013]

Oxford, North Carolina

Screens That Changed Our Lives ~ The Calculator:  During her life, the pencil gave way to the calculator, and the drudgery of arithmetic diminished just a bit. Is the pictorial display on this headstone a coded thank-you note? Or was she a calculating person? Probably the former. Elmwood Cemetery. [2013]

Grand Forks, North Dakota

Screens That Changed Our Lives ~ TV:  He must have been fully grown by the time television entered his life. Yet, it seems to have become one of his best friends. After all, it brought baseball to his living room and he got a chance to see the Minnesota Twins win twice during his lifetime! Talk about reminiscing: Do you remember when (a) broadcasts were in black and white? (b) programming ceased at midnight? and (c) no one could get more than three channels? Memorial Park Cemetery. [2012]

Port Allen, Louisiana

Sectarian Portals ~ Methodist:  How do you explain the above-ground vaults? The slight rise to the left is a levee. The level of the Mississippi is above the level of adjacent land. Think what that means for burial practices in this part of Louisiana. Gulf Coast hydrography requires adaptation, a new take on human-environment relationships. Scott United Methodist Cemetery. [2011]

Graceham, Maryland

Sectarian Portals ~ Moravian:  The Moravian Church was the original Protestant Church. It began with the protest of Jan Hus in the Czech lands of the Holy Roman Empire. After Hus was burned at the stake, his followers organized the Bohemian Brethren in 1457. They were wiped out in their homeland, but survived in the 'New World' where they established parishes in states such as Maryland. Do you know what is unusual about their cemeteries? Graceham Moravian Church Cemetery. [2006]

West, Texas

Sectarian Portals ~ Roman Catholic:  The railroad funneled Czech immigrants to West, Texas, in the 1880s. Last month, 14 people lost their lives in an explosion at the fertilizer plant in West. The remains of some passed through this portal to be interred in the town's Roman Catholic cemetery. The gates of St. Mary's were the last before the Pearly Gates. St. Mary's Cemetery. [2012]

Prattville, Alabama

Poet-ery in the Cemet-ery:  In a hundred years, "A Poem for Grandma" will still be there for all to read. In a hundred years, professional poetry will have disappeared into the digital ether. In a hundred years, cemeteries may be the best museums of 21st century human relationships that we have. Memory Gardens Cemetery. [2013]

East Gwillimbury, Ontario

Poet-ery in the Cemet-ery:  Erato dwelleth here. "Erato who?" you say. The Muse Erato, the daughter of Mnemosyne, the mother of our memory. Mnemosyne dwelleth here. She touches every stone, but does not work alone. Sometimes, she uses her little princess of poetry to commemorate the eternal nature of love. Queensville Cemetery. [2010]