My favorite is the matching beds complete with head and foot boards.

We have many cemeteries here, some large and some quite small. Those of particular religious affiliation as well. Our oldest cemetery, what is still in use, dates back to about 1835. Actually I know it is even older, because my eighth great grandfather is buried there, and he was born a subject of the crown, before the revolution. He died in 1832, shortly after immigrating to this area. The old stones often were decorated with certain details or insignia, and they all had meaning. Next to his grave is that of one g'daughter, Arianna who died as a small child. Her stone is simply a statue of a lamb. This is a typical stone for a child's grave.

There is a potter's field in all of the public cemeteries here and I do have a relative or two in them I found when searching. Those folks often have no stones at all, unless they were veterans and the government furnished them. But one sees homemade monuments. Some simple rocks with carved inscriptions. Some wooden crosses with painted names. Many of the stones in other areas replete with whole poems of hope.

I make greenery memorials and floral memorials in my business. I make them decorated to order and many family ask me to incorporate items special to the lives of their departed. Christmas is a poignant time of year, as they come to place their order, especially when it's for a child. I've placed dogs and deer, teddy bears and birds. Toys and pinwheels, flags and angels. I'm priveledged to be an owner/operator because I can stop in the privacy of our greenery house and LISTEN. They all come with stories and more than once I've cried as I made them.

There is a grave in an older cemetery here of a teenage girl, who died within the past few years. It mostly had things on it that were popular for a girl of that age(kooky braclets etc)....then one day someone put a bullet on the headstone. ????????

The cemetary where my parents are buried has a larger than life size grand piano made of blackmarble.A woman had it made for her grave.It is huge. I understand after this was put in place some guidelines were drawn up and this sort of thing will not happen again.

Not unuusal, but we have a few small "crypts" in the side of a hill. They have fancy iron gates. Back in the day of milk delivery the ornery teens used to leave a dairy wire milk basket outside the gate with a few empty bottle in it and a note asking for the next delivery.