Customer Reviews

Living Among Headstones: Life in a Country Cemetery

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Living Among Headstones - Life in a Country Cemetery by Shannon Applegate

What a fabulous read! It's more about life and all it's implicit meanings as woven into a tapestry of past and present, as well as some of what is inevitable in the future, than just an account of an old cemetery.

The pioneer family cemetery she inherits in Yoncalla, Oregon is a platform, a stage and a point of departure for her journey of exploration of the essence of life and it's compelling human drama.

Of course, this was not her plan. She thought she was going to just run a cemetery. How much trouble could that be? Well, Katie, bar the door! Through it all Shannon Applegate shares with us her strengths and weaknesses, her acuteness and obtuseness, her determination and her fears. She has portrayed all of this while at the same time writing in such a style as to transport us to that very fine spring morning with the sunlight filtering through the Douglas Fir trees projecting the dappled sun on the aging surface of the headstones. Metaphor and allegory abound. She was not afraid to put just who she is on the pages of this book, or if she was, she did it anyway.

My personal expectation that Living Among Headstones would be a text book, a how-to cemetery operations manual, was wholly my own self-imposed limitation. Shannon Applegate relates stories that start with her experiences as a new sexton of the Applegate Pioneer Cemetery then charges into her own personal family past and present to share with us the deep universal human values of recollection and reflection.

I am reminded of one of my highly respected teachers in a very small Midwestern high school. He would enter the room each morning and welcome us all with: "Good morning scholars, today we will come out of the darkness of ignorance into the glorious sunshine of wisdom, knowledge and brotherly love". I feel that Shannon Applegate has done that for me.

We are brought into personal stories of tragedy and loss. With her sometimes-Victorian descriptions of the lives, letters, and diaries of generations gone by, Shannon gives us the pieces of life's puzzle so that we can begin to see the great value that even the smallest (and largest) events that our daily lives hold.

Her work is a living monument to the connectedness and aliveness we can feel through her experience and now through her book.

In reading Living Among Headstones I found myself consistently looking back on my families, as well as my feelings about our final resting place or even if we should have one at all in a very positive light. A wonderful read to see how an inherited cemetery has affected a local lady, her family, and a small logging town. I found Shannon Applegate's novel to be quite entertaining,informative, and very hard to put down. I can't say how many times I laughed with her as she told many a tale. I loved her descriptions of the cemetery which made me feel as if I was right there walking beside her. I wanted to experience the cemetery so I made a point to locate it and walk through it. I could see the many items left on the graves as well as the plastic flowers as I read, yet they did not diminish the beauty of the cemetery in the least in person, they enhanced and personalized it for me as well as she seemed to realize. I was not in the least disappointed as to what I found and felt as I walked through the cemetery, except for the wish that Shannon was my guide in person. I would love to thank her for sharing herself in such a open and beautiful way. I recommend this book to anyone, especially if cemeteries are one of those things you avoid. This book is sure to give you a much different perspective.

I'll bet very few people know what a sexton is. I didn't before I read Living Among Headstones. The title sounds like a mystery novel, or a horror novel, but it is neither. It is a collection of charming essays about the ins and outs of a small town cemetary. Who knew what the problems of running a cemetary could be? Who gets buried where? Are you sure that space is free? Who does the mowing; who takes care of the trees? What do you do about plastic flowers; and what is it like to be in charge of the final resting place of your friends and family. If you have ever wandered through a country cemetary looking at old names and dates and listening to the silence and the bird song, you will find this a delightful short read.

This tells about life as a county cemetery sexton but so much more. It is humorous in the way Shannon describes the little things in life such as gaudy grave decorations. But she has the insight to see what they do for people despite thier tackiness. Shannon shares her own family losses I was especiallly touched by her relationship with her Dad.The tree trimmmers rang a bell, its what my husband does, very funnny. She shows such a soul searching , amusing .yet serious, thoughtful Philosophy on life and death.

I am very pleased with this product. The quantity for the price was very fair, and the packaging was very nice as well. Thank you

This was an uplifting book about the "life" of a small cemetery and the one who is the caretaker. I found it real interesting to read and liked it.

Shannon Applegate's previous book, Skookum, told the story of her pioneer family's coming west and settling in Oregon, chiefly in Yoncalla in the Umqua valley. Living Among Headstones continues the saga, as the duty of tending the family cemetery plot falls to her. This is not the sort of responsibility most people anticipate or prepare for, and Shannon is no exception, but when duty calls she responds with pluck and determination.

Much of the job description involves the routines of taking care of any piece of country acreage: clearing the debris of last winter's storms, keeping the grass mowed, the weeds under control, the fences mended. Then there are the duties of the sexton, calling for people skills, for kindness, caring, tact, and compassion. All this happens within the spectacularly beautiful countryside of rural Oregon, where the hum-drum rhythms of everyday affairs blend seamlessly with the timeless themes of human life and death. Some incidents are quite droll: what does a person do, after passionately bringing order and decorum to a graveyard, about mourners' graveside offerings when these are in garish bad taste? Others are desperate, even grim: with the decline of logging, dearth of economic opportunity in Yoncalla leaves some of its citizens teetering on the brink of destruction, frequently aggravated by their own folly. And some events feel downright tragic: when Shannon's father dies and joins his ancestors on the hill in Yoncalla, it is not entirely unexpected. Nor unbearable. But her brother? And then her stillborn granddaughter?

Through all these levels of events and moods we are guided wisely and gracefully. I deeply enjoyed this book, and was sad when I came to the end. I plan to reread it this summer.

Shannon Applegate, Living Among Headstones: Life in A Country Cemetery (Da Capo, 2005)

For some reason I had it in my head before reading this that Shannon Applegate was a twentysomething just-out-of-college type who decided to try and run a cemetery because she had no other real aims in life. I'm not entirely sure how someone would get into that situation, which should have tipped me off that I was wrong. No, Shannon Applegate was just carrying on the family business, which happened to be the running of a private (i.e., not affiliated with a particular church) cemetery. I also expected this, because of the odd picture I'd painted of the author in my head, to read like some sort of chick-lit mess, or at the very least a punk-ish DIY manual for how to get a job that no one would ever think of getting but that's actually pretty darned cool. I was entirely wrong on the first count, but if you were to take the second and have it written by, say, Anne Lamott, you might come up with something like Living Among Headstones.

This is a memoir, of sorts, and as such I'll admit that I'm biased against it at times; when it's talking about the day-to-day trials of running a cemetery, it's great, but it drifts off into ruminations about life, the universe, and everything a bit too often for me. I do understand that a lot of people seem to like that sort of thing (witness the rise of the memoir-by-person-who's-never-actually-done-anything-of-note in the past decade), and for them, this may well be a much more rewarding read than it was for me. But I don't want to sound like there was no upside to the book for me; I did learn good deal about how one runs a cemetery and the sorts of things one runs into that laymen wouldn't even think about. That works. The rest, well, it's up to you. ***

I read this book as research for my own. I loved it! As a sculptor who specializes in posthumous sculpture and memorials this book made me feel comfortable with my own research. It is a refreshing read on such an unusual subject. I have always loved an author who can paint pictures with their words tantalizing your literary taste buds with every chapter. Reading Applegate's book was like having a box of your favorite candy. You want to save it, eating a little at a time, but before you know it you have devoured the entire thing.
Applegate has a knack for weaving many of the items that interest me into her writing, things like history, biology and Native American Indian culture. The usual topics of cemetery reformation, the Day of the Dead, and intricate details of death and burials in other countries are speckled throughout the writing with just enough information to entice the reader without overwhelming them. Most of the funerary facts in Living Among Headstones I have learned from other research that I have done, but, a few things I have just never thought of before, such as what happens with the "spoils" (left over dirt from a grave) in the cemetery, and the idea that many people are buried east to west, and that some countries burry people in an upright position to save space. I can tell that, like myself, this entire process has occupied much of Applegate's thoughts. When it comes to aspects of death and burial Applegate leaves no stone unturned.
I had found myself emotionally involved in the chapter titled Grave Goods where she discusses removing items like plastic flowers and trinkets from graves to tidy up the cemetery. I had never thought of the practice of leaving personal items at a grave until I visited a grave of a young girl for whom I had created a sculpture. To my delight the grave has many knick-knacks that seem to change with the season, personal items left by friends and family, even a pinwheel. I have no problem with the idea of grave goods at all, and think it is quite unique and special. I would not think of removing anything from a grave no matter what it might be. If I were a sexton I know that would be a difficult decision. For even in some situations a piece of pizza on a paper plate could be considered a token for a loved one. Though it must be a hard call to make I think I would be on the side of those leaving items behind.
As I progressed into the book I was surprised to read her memoirs of burying her own brother and father. The personal accounts made the book so much more alive, and real. Her personal and emotional involvement that was illustrated in her writing seemed to give me permission to weave my own personality and feelings within my descriptions used in the book that I am writing "Bringing to life the Sprit of the Deceased, a Sculptor's Journey."
I was also surprised to see a direct reference to a subject that I had just read in another book. In Malvina Hoffman's Heads and Tales Malvina worked for the Field Museum, and Applegate refers to the field museum with distaste... as late as 1897, the field museum in Chicago was still sending expeditions to plunder the graves of native Oregonians (73). I am passionate about my thoughts on anyone disturbing any grave for whatever reason. To this day I still refuse to view any of the artifacts that have come from the Egyptian tombs. It seems a great invasion of privacy to participate in these practices even in the name of "science."
Hoffman is a wonderful writer and I have enjoyed finding her book and reading it in my research of death and dying. I can see now why her first book Shookum: an Oregon Pioneer Family's History and Lore, was named Oregon's Best 100 Literary Works. Living Among Headstones was not only a welcome treat but I will add Applegate to my favorites list and hope to keep up with the author and read her other works in the future.

Responsibility is a hard to meet. This is especially true when your responsibility requires dealing with grief - the grief of others and your own grief. Shannon Applegate meets that responsibility and gives all of us a window into the struggle that doing so requires. In the process, she shares with us life in a small American town. Applegate is unique in her ability to share this experience in that her family has occupied a place in the community for six generations. Applegate exposes her prejudices and through hard experience learns to be more open and appreciative of the experiences of others. This journey is one which is rewarding not only to Applegate and the small town in which she lives but to all of us who read her book.