Latest news with #gravestones
CBS News
24-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Woman helps change Illinois state law to help repair damaged veteran headstones
After successfully pushing to change state law to help repair and replaced damaged gravestones of Illinois veterans, a Naperville woman is continuing her mission to preserve the legacies of local heroes. Years ago, Staci Boyer, commander of the Judd Kendall VFW Post in Naperville, noticed many of the gravestones of veterans buried at Naperville Cemetery had become badly weathered and worn out, in some cases, left little more than a pile of rocks. She wanted to have them repaired, but ran into a roadblock. State law required permission from a family member, but the damaged headstones were so old, tracking down relatives was difficult. With the help of state lawmakers, she helped change Illinois law to give veterans' organizations the authority to repair headstones that are at least 100 years old. "Before the law, we wouldn't have been able to do anything. We would've tried to find next of kin. We would not have found them, and then the graves would've stayed a pile of rock and debris," Boyer said. Since last summer, Boyer has raised enough money to replace five veteran headstones at Naperville Cemetery. She said all new headstones will be in place by the 4th of July. "I'm proud of our community, you know, for feeling like this is important. People that don't know these veterans but believe that they should be honored this way. That's a beautiful thing," she said. Boyer had bricks engraved at Naperville Cemetery to honor all veterans with damaged headstones.
Times
21-05-2025
- General
- Times
Does anyone believe the promise of Paradise?
With time to kill over the weekend I wandered around the graveyard of Youlgreave village's fine 12th-century All Saints church. I love reading gravestones. This, for example, moves one almost to tears. It's for an infant, Edward Radcliffe, who died in 1796 aged ten months:'Happy babe thy days are ended,All thy mourning days by angels' guards attended,To the light of Jesus gone.' Did little Edward's unhappy parents actually believe that? We cannot know. So many of the chiselled inscriptions speak of being reunited with the deceased in Paradise one day. Did they actually believe that? With what degree of certainty? Did most ancient Greeks really, sincerely, believe in their bizarre pantheon of gods? There is so much that history will
