We had a map that had not been updated in years and we had questions about how accurate it might be. The weeping cherry tree shown on the map had vanished. Gravestone No. 100 should be fifteen feet due south of the Hutchison marker No. 235 but that area was covered in azalea bushes, English ivy, and poison ivy. We cut it all back ten feet deep and ten feet wide over a period of three days, just working a couple hours at a time because it was so hot and muggy and, besides, we are old! A neighbor helped the second day. On the third day, the relatives were set to arrive. Desperate, I prayed. Desperate, I took a hoe and tapped its edge into the ground time and again — tap tap tap — over the cleared area until it suddenly rang out, metal on stone. Under half an inch of dirt was the grave marker, ignored for years, now brought back into the light. Hallelujah!
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Photo of part of the Memorial Garden map, Village of Arden, Delaware. Photo Prayer 2026-18. Photo and text copyright 2026 by Danny Nelson Schweers.
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COMMENTS
Bill N. wrote:
When had the person lived? [DANNY REPLIED: 1920-1992]
Ellen D. wrote:
So good.
Burley M. wrote:
Hi Danny : Thanks for all your emails. I’m glad you didn’t discover my gravestone marker. Helga and I are going to donate our bodies to science. Have a good time at the Arden Fair. Burley
Saundra J. wrote:
Wow! This is so cool. My church here in South Carolina is inventory. It’s cemetery for recordkeeping. Most of the markers are tall but some from the 1800s are not. Thank you for sharing Sandi.
Alice V. E. wrote:
Good morning! I think you’ve described an eternal truth about the cycling of life. Trees eventually die, but bushes grow there — or another tree. The topography of an area changes. Our bodies slowly degrade, bones the most slowly. More humans and animals are birthed, live, die, and become part of the earth — or are burned to become part of the earth. You were able to find a grave due to a man-made object that marked its site. Over centuries, the marker would be erased, too. We see that with footprints on a sandy shore: After two or three waves over the prints, the sand has smoothed out, and no prints remain. It’s the way of nature. Actually, the naturalness of the cycling is one of the reasons I, personally, decry the use of embalming to desperately keep the body “intact” for as long as possible and they lie in a thick, padded, sometimes metal coffin. Have you touched a body that has been embalmed? When the blood is drained from the body and a formaldehyde (or similar now?) chemical instilled, the body, once soft muscle and flesh, has become rubbery, hard — yet not eternal! (I think of embalming as abuse of the body.) I’m so glad to see the long-time coming more natural burials, perhaps including a simple one layer wooden box that allows for natural decay yet still guards the body from flesh-eating animals during the decay process (and limits odor!). I’ve planned to cremated and told my sons they can do anything they want (and are legal) to my ashes including being buried in the backyard. My spirit won’t be there. Thank you for listening. Alice.
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