In response to our conversation about language chosen for a tombstone, listeners share proposed epitaphs for themselves and others. If you just can’t get enough of epitaphs, you can browse lots of back issues of the scholarly journal Markers, published by the Association for Gravestone Studies. A full run of back issues are available at Archive.org. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “More About Epitaphs”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
A while back, we had a conversation about what would you put on your tombstone? You know, how do you distill your life into an epitaph? Who am I? And how am I going to tell the world about myself? Right.
And we had a lot of listeners call and write with what they were proposing for their own epitaphs. We heard from Julie Phipps, who said, I’ve decided to put on mine. I enjoyed it. May I be excused? And there’s a reason she did that. She says, I grew up in Texas, and I always had to say it before I left a meal that my mother had prepared for us. She’s from a very small town in Mississippi, and boy, manners were everything. So whether it was broccoli or Brussels sprouts, whatever, I always had to say, I enjoyed it. May I be excused? So I always thought that would be a great epitaph.
Yeah, that could be good, right? Yeah, I like that one.
And we also heard from Seth in New York, who said that he was unfortunately faced with the responsibility of coming up for epitaphs for his parents. And he said that his dad, whether it was at a bar mitzvah or a wedding, he would always ask the band to play this one song. And the one song was You Are the Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder. And Seth says, I used to cringe at it and think it was silly. And then his parents ended up passing away 12 days apart. So he had to come up with two gravestones. And on his father’s side, the epitaph is, you are the sunshine of my life. And on his mother’s side, it says, forever you’ll be in my heart. How sweet is that?
That’s very nice.
And one more from Sam Rittenberg, who lives in New York City. He says that his Uncle Jack took a trip to somewhere in the Southwest west and brought back a snapshot of one of his favorite sets of tombstones, probably in the late 1940s. He writes, it was of a husband and wife who had been laid to rest side by side. On the wife’s stone was written, where are you, honey? And on the husband’s, I’m right here, darling.
Oh, that’s very nice.
Right? I got choked up reading that. Yeah, that’s very fantastic. I have great news for you, Martha.
Yeah?
If you want to read a lot more about this, there is what looks like the entire run of the journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies at archive.org.
What? There is such a thing?
This is an academic journal. It’s called Markers.
Ooh.
Yes. And it’s all available at no cost at archive.org, issue after issue, page after page, including pictures and articles and discussions of materials and methodologies and experts talking about their field. And it is utterly fascinating.
Utterly fascinating.
What’s the name of that journal again?
It’s called the Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies, and the journal is named Markers.
Where is that association located?
I don’t know. I don’t really know. But it goes back decades, decades of this journal.
Oh, my goodness.
It’s wonderful at archive.org.
Okay.
Just look for it.
There goes my weekend. You find out all kinds of things on this show. And you can find out the answers to your questions about language. So call us 877-929-9673 or email us at words@waywordradio.org.
