Our month of horror continues with words from the grave!
As a bagpiper I play many gigs. Recently, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. The departed had no family or friends, and the service was to be at a pauper’s cemetery in rural Kentucky. I was not familiar with the backwoods and got lost, and being a typical man I didn’t stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late and saw that the funeral workers were gone, and the hearse was nowhere in sight. Only the diggers and their equipment remained, and the men were eating lunch in the shade of a nearby tree.
I felt bad about being too late for the ceremony and I apologized to the workers. I went to the side of the grave, looked down, and saw that the vault lid was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play.
The workers put down their lunches and gathered around with their hardhats in hand. I played my heart and soul out for that man with no family and no friends. I played for that man like I’ve never played for anyone. I played Amazing Grace, and as I played the workers began to weep. They wept and I wept, and we all wept together.
When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.
As I opened the door to my car I heard one of the workers say: “I have never seen or heard of anything like that… and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years!” — author unknown
It pays to know your graves! And with no further silliness, let’s get down to the abodes of the dead…
A sepulchre (also, sepulcher), pronounced “SEP-uhl-ker”, is typically a tomb or grave. It can also refer to a cavity beneath an altar slab in which the partial remains of a saint are contained. The word comes to us from the Latin sepulcrum, meaning “burial place”.
From the Greek kenotaphion, “empty tomb”, we get cenotaph, a tomb or memorial honoring someone whose remains are elsewhere. Famous cenotaphs include Spirit of Sacrifice at The Alamo, the National War Memorial in Canada, and the Memorial Cenotaph in Hiroshima, Japan.
In Latin, necropolis translates to “city of the dead”. It’s a large cemetery of the kind found in many ancient cities.
Next week, we conclude our Halloween Horror collection. Check back on the 31st for our spookiest words!
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