When you've popped your clogs................

.............what would you like inscribed on your headstone? (presuming you've been buried and have a headstone as an accessory.)

 

Being the dad of two young brothers, something like....

Oh for gods sake, can't I even be dead without having to shout down to tell you to stop fighting?

 

It's your mother's fault: she was a temptress?

 

Take it you'm got rid of the body now then Kindred?

You know you gave our spambot ideas there

 

She made me do it!

 

I'm for the burn, so no headstone for me; any lasting legacy is inscribed in my genes.

 

And in the effect, no matter how small, that you have on others.

These two things are the only lasting legacy any of us leave, but they are vastly more important than anything material.

 

I would plagriarise Spike Milligans epitaph, " I told them I was ill".

 

Then I shall eternally hope, that any effect, may be a positive one. If not immediately apparent as positive, then I shall have to accept that sometimes, to be effective takes a little time.

 

Utterly agree!
But, in my opinion, you don't need a headstone for either; they speak for themselves!

 

Indeed this is true. But the headstone is not for the dearly departed. It is for those left behind. A headstone is nothing more than a shrine. A simple focal point upon which the bereaved can meditate on the memory of their loved one.

On that note, I have only ever visited one grave (except accompanying someone else, and of course except for when someone is actually being planted). That is the grave of my grand parents on my mother's side. And I only visited once. It was just before I got married. Wife thought I was mad when despite her checking numbers multiple times, I insisted on one extra pair of family grade buttonhole flowers (one white for a bloke and one pink for a woman). I didn't tell my missus who they were for and she really thought I'd lost the plot. When the flower lady delivered the buttonholes, off I went on my own with one male/female pair. I found the grave of my grandparents and put the buttonhole flowers there. My nanna died when I was very young, but I remember her. My grandad lived to see me grow up, and start mixing with the ladies. He met the young lady that became my wife and made no secret of his approval. He clearly accepted her as future family. My plan of taking the buttonholes to put on his and my nannas grave was a subtle way of saying, if you're spirits do live on, then I expect you to be there, up front in the immediate family bit.

 

No headstone for me as my body goes to medical science. When they're done with it they'll chuck whats left on the fire!