Where are people buried?

[bluerose]

When my older sister died in a car wreck (this was almost fifty years ago) she was eligible to be buried in Ft. Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso, TX since she was a military dependent. My father was able to request a site with a vault that held three caskets-- for my sister, my mom and himself. He trusted that my younger sister and I would no longer qualify for burial there and only one of his children would go before him.

My husband and I live in a rural area in New Mexico and my brother in law has designated a small section of his property as the family cemetery (so long as we are all cremated.) His wife, my father-in-law, my MIL’s father, and her brother are buried there. There is a large statue of the Sacred Heart in one corner and a wooden bench made by one of his wife’s family members. It’s beautiful. Now we just have to hope that at least one of the kids hangs on to the property after we’re all gone!

 

[CradleJourney]

Slightly off-topic, but my dd did a history project on gravestones for school, and my ds’s have done much work for various troop member’s eagle scout projects cleaning up and fencing in pioneer cemeteries.

This has led me to spend a decent amount of time wandering graveyards reading headstones.

It has both amused and surprised me at the number of stones that were created with the apparent intention of having both spouses buried there - but life took an apparent different turn, since one spouse’s side will only have their name and birth date but no date of death, while the other side does. Thus leading me to suspect that the longer living spouse was (for whatever reason) never buried next to their husband/wife. If it were for more modern times, I’d suspect the spouse was still alive (as is the case for my own parent) - but these are well over 100yrs old or more (from date of birth) - so it does create an unanswered story.

All of which has led me to insist that my name never be engraved until my actual passing - no matter what cost savings might be involved

 

[UpUpAndAway]

My family is buried all over the place. Because The Husband and I both come from very small families and have no children ourselves, the potential pool of relatives who would visit our graves is tiny so we’re not actually too bothered where we end up.

There are of course many considerations when it comes to planning one’s final arrangements, but as far as location is concerned The Husband’s only criterion is to be laid to rest next to me. My only criterion is not to be buried in France.