BBC Radio
Leicester Thought for the Day
© John Denney 21
January 2005
I
enjoy wandering about old churches and their churchyards. The graves and the gravestones can be
fascinating. Did you know that in
old graveyards the dead were buried east-west? The reason was that in mediaeval days,
Jesus was expected to return to the earth one day with the morning sunrise. And the dead would be able to sit up
straight away and face him. I don’t
think that Christians today are so confident about the location of Jesus’
eventual arrival, even if we expect him back one day.
I
enjoy unusual epitaphs, and friends have sent some to me. There’s a 19th Century one in
Wiltshire that says:
Blown
Upward
Out of
sight
He sought the
leak
By
candlelight
In
Dundee, there’s one that hasn’t quite understood the Christian message of “Love
thy neighbour”. It
reads:
He lived and
died a true Christian. He loved his
friends and hated his enemies.
A
Biblical reference gave rise to an unintended comment on the occupants of a
grave in Hackney:
Here lies the
body of
JAMES
ROBINSON
And RUTH, his
wife.
“Lord, their
warfare is accomplished.”
An
epitaph from Aurora Falls, America, takes full advantage of the opportunity
offered.
To the Memory
of
JARED
BATES
His widow,
aged 24,
Lives at 7 Elm
Street,
Has every
qualification for a Good Wife
And yearns to
be comforted.
And
the late, great Spike Milligan has a wonderfully typical statement on his
gravestone – in Irish Gaelic – I told you
I was ill.
Sometimes, though, there is a good, and truthful, and
inspiring epitaph. Benjamin
Franklin, the famous scientist and statesman, originally a printer, composed
this cheerful epitaph for himself:
The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like the cover
of an old book, its contents worn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding,
lies here food for worms. Yet the
work itself shall not be lost, for it will appear once more in a new and more
beautiful edition, corrected and amended by its author.
Isn’t
that delightful?
I’ve
thought about the inscription I’d like on my
grave. Something along the lines of
JOHN DENNEY
Missed by his family and friends
Who look forward to joining him in
heaven
I
wonder: what are they going to put on your
grave?