Tombstones

My grandma went ahead and had her name and birth year and all that on the tombstone after my grandpa died in 1998. Still freaks me out when I go to the graveyard to see her name on there.

 

I'd say it makes sense if a couple knows they will be buried side by side. Installing them already seems kind of weird if both are still alive. Seems like it would be easier to put the years on with them out of the ground.

 

Kick me to the gutter when I go. Not like I'm going to notice where I wind up, right?

 

Tangent: I always loved that when Jefferson designed his own headstone, he was worried about someone mining it.

"...to be of the coarse stone of which my columns are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials."

 

TigerVols,
Quite common to have both who are alive and healthy do it. At least in my hometown. Was just back there and visited the grave of a friend who recently died. He doesn't have a tombstone yet but as I walked around, was amazed at the number of tombstones of people who are young and quite healthy. People in early 50s. And in my parents' hometown, there was some guy who had a deal a few years back -- he sold tombstones -- and a bunch of young, healthy couples, both still alive, signed up for it so the cemetery there is filling up with them...although not, yet, filling up with bodies.

 

Seems to be pretty common in my extended family, I know that.

One benefit re: reserving a specific spot is that depending on the size of the cemetery (or the area of it in which you want to be buried); if you don't do it early enough, there may not be room for you after you die. So if the final resting place is important to you, why not go ahead and put a tombstone there now, too? If you're already thinking about it, I imagine having a marker with your name on it isn't going to bother you all that much.

 

I already have a plot for that reason.

 

You tell 'em I'm coming, and HELL'S coming with me!

 

I don't even want to shop for tombstones. I don't want to tempt fate. I have no doubt that once I pick one out, it'll have to be put to use.

 

I hope everyone on this thread has signed up to be organ donors. That's what you should be thinking of before you go and get tombstones.

 

Oh, that does seem a little odd. Then again, I'm not a big proponent of cemeteries in general. It seems inefficient to dedicate so much of our finite space on this planet to decomposing bodies.

 

I'm a (future) organ donor, but I don't really get what one has to do with the other.