Obituaries & Tributes
Order a Book of Memories™
for Your Loved One
Learn More
613-583-3227 Immediate Need
Pre-Arrange Your Funeral
Contact Us
Site Search
This is a Cemetery...
A quick search reveals that many cemeteries around the world have used this poem on websites and immortalized the words on plaques on their grounds. This poem, in a few short lines, manages to convey all the reasons why cemeteries are so important, especially for the living. Unfortunately, credit is not often given to its author, Mary Lou Brannon.
Vince and Mary Lou Brannon purchased the Brannon Monument Company in Dubuque, Iowa in 1961, it had been in existence since 1926. The company creates monuments, etchings, mausoleums, vases, statuary and almost any memorial products you would expect to find in a cemetery. The company is still family owned as Vince, who passed away in 2004, and Mary Lou's son Michael purchased the business in 1993. For almost 90 years the company has been dedicated to commemorating the lives of people with monuments that will last forever.
The family's motto "Monuments are designed because someone lived… Not because someone died." echos the words of the poem that Mary Lou Brannon decided to write which offers her perspective on what a cemetery really is and why they are so important to us today and for future generations.
This Is Cemetery…
Lives are commemorated - deaths are recorded - families are reunited - memories are made tangible - and love is undisguised.
This is a cemetery.
Communities accord respect, families bestow reverence, historians seek information and our heritage is thereby enriched.
Testimonies of devotion, pride and remembrance are carved in stone to pay warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life - not death - of a loved one. The cemetery is homeland for family memorials that are a sustaining source of comfort to the living.
A cemetery is a history of people - a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery exists because every life is worth loving and remembering - always.
copyright: Mary Lou Brannon - Certified Memorialist
Brannon Monument Co.
Read more: Brannon Monument Co.
Photo by Victor Iglesias
Daily Grief Support by Email
Grieving doesn't always end with the funeral: subscribe to our daily grief support email, designed to help you a little bit every day, by filling out the form below.
Weekly Email Tips to Support a Grieving Friend
Those grieving are in great need of support. If a close friend has recently experienced a loss, fill out the form below to subscribe to our weekly tips and find out how you can be most helpful.
