Tuesday 18 November 2008

Dear Ancestor ...

I found this on a blog and for all of us who are keen genealogists I think it is very poignant.

Dear Ancestor

Your tombstone stands among the rest; neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out on polished, marbled stone

It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn
You did not know that I’d exist
You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you in flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled one hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left who would have loved you so.

I wonder if you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot, and come to visit you.

(unknown author)

2 comments:

Joanne said...

WOW - I've got goosebumps!

Sage said...

That is a lovely thing to do reaching out beyond the grave.. only wish some of my ancestors had left us more details :-)