Living the dash

     The sexton of our cemetery has gotten to know a lot of people who now reside beneath the remembering stones.  He's written some books about them, devoting countless hours to making sure we remember them.   Yesterday, the Lowell Museum held a cemetery walk, a tour of some of the resting places of the people who settled Lowell so we could become acquainted with them and know a little about what their lives were like when they lived their dash.  On remembering stones there is a date of birth and a date of death separated by a dash, 1882-1940.  He calls our time here now as our time of living the dash.
     It was a picture perfect fall day.  Blue skies, sunshine, cool enough for a sweater and a nice walk.  There were six stations throughout two sections of the cemetery with someone ready to introduce us to the people resting there.

People were lining up 30 minutes before we were to begin and in two hours we had 85 people come to listen, ask questions, maybe find where their ancestors now rest. This wasn't about the iconography on tombs, it was about remembering the people who worked hard to settle Lowell, hearing stories from their dash years.
 There was even a black cat who wandered amongst us, wrapping around our legs, settling on our feet if we stood still long enough, played on the stones and we thought it so appropriate that the cemetery was a playground for a black cat! 

I heard somewhere that 100 years after we are gone, no one will remember who we were.    Poof!
But a day like today, and through the work of our sexton, the people who call Lowell's city cemetery home ARE remembered and talked about.  Lucky them.