kathy9 wrote:Gosh this is some wonderful search page from Ralston. Isnt it wonderful to have people who will share so much.
I don’t know if you’ve already noticed, but for as long as you don’t exaggerate, they’ll send you photos of the headstones for free. This is an unimportant aspect for those who live in the area, but for me and many of us who live abroad, it’s an ideal source of information.
Apart from the occasional e-mail, the last time I spoke with my brother and sister in Somerset was about 15 years ago. About that time my mother died..., I was able to see her a few weeks before but was unable to attend the funeral, so it was the remainder of the family who did the formalities and I took it for granted that she’d be buried in the region.
Her father, my grandfather Malcolm Black died just after the war following the sinking of his boat in the Thames Estuary and when I found his headstone at Kilkerran, Ralstone sent me the photo and to my delight, I also found the inscription of my mother. The family had sent her remains back to Campbeltown.
Writing this short story has reminded me of something which I now intend to keep for eternity so-to-speak. It was my Grandmother Mary Martin McCuaig Rankin MacArthur…, wife of Malcolm and daughter of Robert McFarlane McArthur b1860 who had a great influence in my upbringing. (Longrow) With me about eight years old, we’d walk to Kilkerran and she’d always have a bunch of flowers. At the time, I hadn’t a clue as to who was buried there, she never said..., but each time we went she’d often point out a headstone on the way, not far from the family’s grave. “Never eat chewing gum” she’d always say, and once asked me to read the message on the stone.
“Don’t eat chewing gum, don’t eat chewing gum,
don’t eat chewing gum or else you’ll be like me.”
It disturbs me slightly that because of population increase, nearly all governments around the world are planning to un-earth graves 100 years after the last burial. Seems such a shame that in this day and age we have “intelligent” people preplanning a deliberate loss of heritage.
In our local graveyard they’ve posted small notices on such graves and they’ll all be uprooted next year.