“Remember me as you pass by. As you are now so once was I; As I am now, so you must be. Therefore, prepare to follow me.”-Unknown

My husband and I wandered through one of our city’s oldest graveyards on a cold and gray afternoon. It was once outside of town, but is now surrounded on all sides by a University, in the shadow of a looming Football Stadium. A neon sign glows red through the 100 year old oaks and leaves its reflection in a puddle on the path. The buzz of life, laughter, music, chatter sounds faintly. But within, all is hushed and quiet.

We pass by stones bearing names that are now found on street signs and buildings in our town, Jemison, Hargrove, Van de Graf.

We walk by a family plot with a father, mother and 3 tiny graves before the grave of a child that lived to be an adult. Beneath the lamb on one of the little graves:

“How much of light, how much of joy, now buried with our darling boy.”

We pass graves of soldiers from every war and in one plot combatants on both sides of a long ago fight, now come to rest together, no longer enemies. The old conflict settled now, or perhaps as settled as it will ever be.

I see the graves of what must have been enslaved persons, buried with the families that enslaved them, not even allowed freedom in death.

I run my fingers over stones so old that the wind and the rain have rubbed away the names, and there is no one is left to remember who they were.

Yet, it is still and oddly peaceful. This vast sea of people stretched out before me, all their joys and accomplishments, their grief and sorrows, all over now. Brought to heel by time, the great leveler, with no more power to lift or crush. They have laid them down to sleep in the earth side by side.

Beyond the wall I hear a young woman shriek with laughter and the sound of feet running by. It is a Saturday night in a college town. These lay sleeping surrounded by those whose joys and sorrows lay before them. They too will one day lay them down and sleep, but not yet.