Web Notes

Two recent posts on Dory Adam's In This Light blog explore how families remember and honor their dead. In Mountain Cemeteries: Decoration Day, Dory recalls how her family celebrated Decoration Day, or Memorial Day as we now call it. She concludes:

"It gives me a sense of peace knowing my ancestors are at rest in their mountain cemetery while I remember the dead in my own way, planting flowers of remembrance in my own garden here in the city."

In response to Mountain Cemeteries, Maria Clara Paulino writes in a guest post about her own family and the cemeteries of Portugal. The cultures are different and Portugal's "Cities of the Dead" bear little resemblance to country cemeteries in the West Virginia mountains, but the response to memory and loss is familiar.

"Since my mother died three years ago, my father spends a good hour every Sunday making sure the marble is washed gleaming white and the vases are filled to the brim with my mother's favorite flowers."

Visit In This Light and read both posts.