President and Sister Wilkey: Monuments and Memories and Mother's Day

In Barre, Vermont, near the granite quarries is Hope Cemetery. There are buried men and women who are the sculptors of granite, who earned their living in carving from the hard stone. This tour of a small part of the 53 acre cemetery, all monument in white granite, made me pause to reflect:

if I were to carve my own headstone as did these men, what would I design?

Then, on another level, I reflected, "Are my life's choices carving a monument I would choose to leave to our family and associates?"

This scupture, life size, no doubt done by the sculptor himself depicts a dying man
held by his wife. Often the sculptors died of to a common stone carver's ailment, silicosis,
from a lifetime of breathing in airborne stone particles.

Precariously posed, this cube is carved with the sculptor's life loves: his wife, his family, nature, his life's work....

What would we carve in stone?

The Joseph Smith Memorial was scene of another memorial service, this a tribute to men and women who have and are serving in the armed forces.

The haunting music of the bag pipes as well as children singing, the speaker, a 2 star general and preisent of Norwich Military Academy, the local band, served to bring gratitude, even reverence for those who serve to preserve our freedoms

On the Sunday preceding Labor Day, this display was in the foyer of the Portsmouth Ward.
Many of the congregation now serve in the Navy, Coast Guard or Air Force or ae the families of those who do.

This statue done by a German artisan captures a joy in motherhood.