Traditional epitaphs rest in peace
http://news.yahoo.com/s/n...eQw7ole.YlHFqWGLmckntiBIF TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadians are becoming wordier, particularly when it comes to their last words.
Alberta-based author Nancy Millar has wandered the country's graveyards and says that over the past 20 years, gravestone epitaphs have begun to illustrate a trend of Canadians wanting to be more than "eternally beloved" when they
"rest in peace."
"I was trying to show that Canadians are interesting and can be interesting in their graveyards," she said about her book, "The Final Word: The Book of Canadian Epitaphs."
"I think graveyards have a root in history. I'm not particularly creepy or any of those sorts of things, I just love them because they tell a story out there."
Many of the nontraditional epitaphs noted in the book are whimsical.
"This wasn't my idea," complains a gravestone near Salmon Arm, British Columbia.
A Saskatoon headstone reads: "I'd rather be in Boston watching the Red Sox," and in Manitoba, a widely used epitaph, according to Millar, is "I told you I was sick."
"He who dies with the most toys wins" can be found in a cemetery near Medicine Hat, Alberta. Three hours north, in Delia, Alberta, "All things considered, we'd rather be in Philadelphia," a variation on the W.C. Fields quotation, is immortalized.
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