Cousin Wende of the FaceBook based ancestry group The Sheldon Family Association reminded us of this very fine ancestry poem expressed here to help brighten your day:
Dear
Ancestor
"Your
tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone.
The name
and date are chiseled out
On polished marble stone.
It reaches
out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.
You
did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.
Yet each of
us are cells of you
In flesh, and blood, and 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 how you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That
someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you."
- a poem by Walter Butler Palmer (1868-1932), allegedly written in 1906 while Mr. Palmer visited the cemetery where his great grandparents are resting.
And too...
a few months back, these scholarly written words by Ms. Della M. Cummings-Wright were re-published for your kind consideration -- click HERE to view.
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