My name on a tombstone
Well, this is me.
I’m 24 years old, Ohio born and bred. I grew up nine miles from Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, and spent a lot of time there as a child, picking dandelions for headstones and knocking on crypts while my dad birdwatched. Although I don’t live in Columbus anymore, I like to think of Green Lawn as my alma mater in taphophila, an interest that has grown along with my love of genealogy in the last five years. I’m directly related to a total of six people in Green Lawn.
I graduated from Urbana University, of Urbana, Ohio, in 2007, with a BA in English. Grounds & Grounds is not my first book but it is my first attempt at nonfiction–hear, hear. My ambitions chiefly focus on getting to grad school for a degree as a Master of Letters, one day leading to a Ph.D. After that, I hope to teach English literature while writing my own, but we’ll see what life holds.
Apart from genealogy and cemetery lore, I obviously have a deep love for frozen coffee products. Among my other obsessive loves are secondhand books and the stores they come from (most notably Half Price Books of Columbus). One bizarre talent that I have is the ability to guess within three years’ accuracy the decade in which a book was published just by smelling it. I also love cats. And abrupt endings.
I’m also particularly fond of a new laptop (110% PC!) and one of the most impassioned Star Wars enthusiasts you would probably ever meet. I’m a Christian, Independent Baptist, and know there’s nothing to fear from death or the dead. I’ve already written my will, planned my funeral, and am trying to decide where I’d like to be buried and what I’d like to be on my tombstone. (Pepperoni and mushrooms.)
My Cemetery Wishlist (Cemeteries I’m Dying to Get To)
- Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia. http://novodevichye.com/
- Brock Cemetery in Greenville, Ohio (resting place of Annie Oakley, my childhood hero)
