Have you ever just wondered through an old graveyard? Have you ever stopped to read the tombstones?

When I was a teenager, some friends and I visited an old local cemetery at night, did etchings of the headstones and recorded ourselves as we read out the person’s information. Of course I got scared and creeped out and that was the last time I went on a night visit of any cemetery.

Now though I find them so fascinating and truly filled with a beauty that most don’t see.

When you look at a fading tombstone, you are not seeing death, but someone’s life. There is the date of birth and date of death, but it is that time in between those dates that is filled with life!

Did they lead a happy life, follow their dreams or stay in a comfort zone of no risks? Did they have a secret love, a wondrous love or no love at all? Did they make a difference or did they stay out of view of the world?

I love to think about all those things, trying to imagine the person they were, those they loved and those who loved them.

Cemeteries are filled with so much history…so many chances to imagine life in times past and the chance to gaze at the beauty that is there.

Picture provided by Hannah McGowan. Primrose flowers at the All Saints Church on Viney Hill, Forest of Dean, England