October 17

THE GRAVEYARD RABBIT
BY TERRY THORNTON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

Meet "The Graveyard Rabbit"

I was flattered to be invited to become a regular columnist at Shades of the Departed. When the publisher, footnoteMaven, asked if I would do a regular column on cemeteries, I immediately set out to determine what I could name the column --- or name the work I wish to do with the column --- in order to provide direction for the articles to be researched and presented here.

My choice was to call the column "The Graveyard Rabbit" after a poem by Frank L. Stanton. In Stanton's work, he states the graveyard rabbit is "a tiny ghost in the gloom and gleam, Content to live where dead men dream." And because the "content to live where dead men dream" line is so descriptive of the work all of us do in genealogy and family history, I think that Stanton's sentiment will serve well to describe my column here.

The moniker of "The Graveyard Rabbit" might not be, however, what the publisher had in mind to call my column --- but watch for my work here as I write about cemeteries, grave markers, photographs of interesting grave markers, and family stories about burials and graveyards. And maybe you will read all of Stanton's poem in the process to learn, indeed, if "the graveyard rabbit hath a charm." I look forward to presenting a monthly column at Shades of the Departed and I hope you will join me on this journey to "where dead men dream."

Join The Graveyard Rabbit November 2 For
"On The Way To Cherry Tree . . ."