I never think of things like “monuments” which is probably due to the family I come from.  You can tell by the lack of almost all monuments in our family cemetery plots.  It’s not like our family has been destitute but most would rather drink away the money than “waste” it on a cemetery stone.

My Great Aunt Ruth, who didn’t drink, bought a stone for her husband after he passed and that was after he left everything to his brother.  My Aunt was one of the few righteous people I have ever met in my life.  Every so often I would travel the 30 miles or so to visit the family cemetery and see that lone gray stone in the midst of it.  On a visit in 2012 I was shocked to see two new large stones marking 4 graves.  Shocking since I was not aware of any living relatives on the Wagner side.  My Aunt and her husband were the last of the family I knew of and my Aunt passed in 1958.  It had to be a relative of her husbands because they replaced his stone with a double stone that included my Aunt and a double stone for his parents as well that both passed in 1928.  It states they brought their family over in 1900, I think from Germany.