Tombstone Tuesday: My Parents

Gravestone of Thomas and Dorothy Broadfoot, 2008 River Bend Cemetery by Midge Frazel

Stone 2008, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Thomas and Dorothy (Stewart) Broadfoot

Since my Family History Writing Challenge is about my neighborhood, I think that it would be good to show readers the gravestone my parents chose for themselves. I was responsible for adding the end date for my mother. Money was set aside for it with a note of which monument company in Westerly, RI I should call.

My paternal family were stone masons and stone cutters and the granite industry was essential to Westerly. I wish the stone was aging better but it does blend in with the family gravestones around it. My mother did not choose to have her maiden name on the stone and ironically, with her dementia, began to call herself that name near the end of her life. But, this is how they signed their names on documents (see tomorrow's post) and so it is right that this is how this stone should read.

The project will cover the earliest years of my life and their life together. I decided to show some family documents because it might help others decide what should be kept and archived when they must clean out someone's house. It is a sad job.

I even kept the note that accompanied the "instructions" for burial, adhering to what was asked, as best that I could. I might have done some things differently but I tried to remember that this was not about my life. It was the story of theirs. So, let the story begin....