A grave marker is how people will remember you long after everyone you know has passed. When done well, it can provide a sense of one’s style in life. The epitaph should be pithy, the shape and style memorable. You could go for the classic granite slab or opt for something a little more memorable. As grave markers, tombstones offer a focus for mourning and commemoration. Typically made of stone and usually engraved with the deceased’s name, date of birth and death, they also often carry inscribed tributes. They’ve been around a long time, across a wide variety of cultures. .
More than just words, the aesthetics of tombstones also tell us about the beliefs of their creators. The specifics tell us something unique about the times they are made – about communities, their identity, values and beliefs, about both life and the afterlife.
Most obviously, a tomb’s location can reflect the deceased’s personal attachment to a specific location, while craftsmanship and materials can reflect social status, especially if rare. Inscriptions are indications of literacy, while decorative motifs can suggest religious affiliations. Even without decoration or inscription, the tombstone’s shape, position within a cemetery, type of cemetery, all help build a picture of what a society values and how individuals fit into these values.
The simplest reason for tombstones’ success is that they are fit for purpose. Suitable stone has been relatively easy to find and transport to gravesites. It can be decorated. Stone is hard-wearing, enduring extreme weather and the passage of time – ensuring a lasting tribute. Which also explains why other grave markers, whatever they might have been, are lost to time. With the rise of humanist funerals and with cemeteries facing overcrowding, accompanied with increasing sustainability concerns – are tombstones falling out of favour? There is a trend for alternatives but there will always be a place for tombstones. Their reassuring solidity literally represents a life, keeping it present and so relevant.
Though limited in words, tombstones can tell the most evocative story about you… for all eternity. Engravings on tombstones, mausoleums and memorials tell us just about everything there is to know about a person: date of birth and death as well as religion, ethnicity, occupation, community interests, and much more.
Occasionally, however, a tombstone offers a clue or two about who someone was and how they impacted the people in their lives – and often, the result is heartwarmingly hilarious.
The great voiceover artist Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Pie, Sylvester, and many other popular cartoon characters, was also the voice of Looney Tunes’ ubiquitous sign-off, “The-the-the-that’s all folks.” When Blanc died in 1989, his family made sure that all future generations who came upon his tombstone would know exactly what he was famous for in life. Not only does it say “That’s All Folks” in quotation marks, but it also refers to Blanc as the “man of a thousand voices,” as well as a “beloved husband and father.”
NOTE: To learn more about the stories that tombstones can tell, come to the City of Canada Bay Museum on Saturday, 1st June at 1:30 for 2:00 pm when Kerrima-Gae Top will tell us more about Talking Tombsones.
