Each cemetery is unique and has its own atmosphere. I enjoy the experience of slipping into that atmosphere and being taken back in time. The tombstones are silent witnesses to lives lived in earlier days. In my mind I form the sounds that once were their names and wonder about them. Were they builders, healers, dreamers? Did they do their best or just get by? Are they remembered? Do others have their faces, still know their names?

Once, I took a cemetery and tried to answer those questions. I transcribed the gravestone inscriptions, looked up obituaries and death records. Little by little, the stories of the people who rested in that cemetery emerged. I came to know the trusted bus driver, the lumbermill hero, the town founder who planted trees, the pioneer merchant, and the Englishwoman who helped birth a new community out of the wilderness. This cemetery rests beneath a spectacular mountain and bears its name--Mount Si Memorial Cemetery.

Each of us has their own reasons for visiting cemeteries, transcribing gravestone inscriptions, and taking photographs. It's personal why we do what we do. But it's also giving back to our society and helping to remember the people who went before us. There were so many and each of them lived their lives one day at a time, just like us.

Feel free to contact me about any memorials or photos I've posted.