A WONDERFUL TIME FOR LIFE

Morning market alleyway - “Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.”

I have a collection of humorous and poignant epitaphs and tombstone verses. Not because I am morbid, but because what is said about someone who has recently died is so important. Granted, not all tombstone sayings are telling. Like the one for Lester Moore at Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona:

Here lies Lester Moore
Four slugs from a 44
No Les
No More.

Or this grave marker from Uniontown, Pennsylvania:

Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake
Stepped on the gas
Instead of the brake.

Sometimes these "last words" reveal more than the deceased may have wanted, like this one:

Here lies a fellow who lived for himself
And cared for nothing
But gathering pelf,
Now, where he is or how he fares,
Nobody knows and nobody cares.

These posthumous writings will often summarize a life. If accurate, they can point the reader to that which was most important to the deceased. Did this person enjoy life? Was she cared for? Did he make a difference? Did she leave a legacy?

When you die, how will you be remembered?

Columnist Nick Clooney in NICK: Collected Columns of Nick Clooney (Irena Hochman Fine Art Ltd., 1997) printed some epitaphs from people still alive, written by themselves. Some were humorous, some serious. Some hoped that their own original epitaph would be close to the way they might be remembered. One that I truly love came from Charlie Mechem, former head of Taft Broadcasting. Charlie wished that this might be put on his tombstone:

"Dear God,
Thanks for letting me visit.
I had a wonderful time."

Isn't that terrific? And could it be said about you...that you were grateful for the visit and had a wonderful time? That's a life worth living!

From Lifesupport.

Lifesigns Life Quotes