A tribute to family
 

My mother became involved in geneology after she started attending church again. In the last ten years we have traced both sides of her family fairly far back. It turns out that on one side I am a MAyflower decendant and on the other the great great grandson of an Irish immigrant who fought in the revolutionary war.

Recently at the fiftieth Fairey family reunion we were invited to see the family monument that was erected on the site of the family's original cemetary. It is in a corner of the local hunting club and easily missed if one doesn't know its there. On the way home from the reunion I whipped out my Ipaq and wrote this.

Silent stones

Alone, lost, forgotten.
Erected in love, with memory blessed.
An anchor to the past, a reminder of those gone now.
He is many long years left neglected.

The names he wears pass from living memory.
but stone remembers them all.
Many years come and go. The lives of men short and quick compared to stone
His memories wait for all to see.

Vines and trees embrace him. The earth reclaims her own.
Dreaming, sleeping. remembering the forgotten days.
Then come loving hands, the light shines on him again.
Names long unknown are uttered in reverence by children of distant progeny.

The stone keeps its promise
The words still there for all to see.
His memory longer than mans, his patience, unbreakable.
The lone sentinel, the traveler in time awakes.

He brings his message again from the past to a new generation.
He calls them close and whispers “These are you fathers and their fathers.”


“They are those that have gone before that you may stand here.
Their blood flows through you. Remember them.”

Tears. Years. Both shed in an instant of recognition.
Here we have stood. Here we still stand. Blood to blood.
A gentle hand placed with love on hard stone.
“My forefathers stood here, and now so do I. “

Reverence and pride that they have persevered
Where once few stood uncertain
Now many stand united.
They are remembered.

Time slips ahead. Human memories fade once more.
Deep in the a forgotten hollow,
Dreaming in the arms of the forests embrace
The lone stone sentinel dreams, and remembers for the next generation.

Very nice....very, very nice. :bawling:

Beautiful.

But you were really just showing off about your technology, weren't you ... ;)