We stepped from our vehicle in front of the weather worn metal stairs. The ground was wet from the rain that had fallen only a few minutes before. Tiny droplets fell from the trees. It felt like it was still drizzling. I paused to look down and realized there was little necessity for the orange and red rusted entrance beyond nostalgia. The tiny walk up, which leads to the life of those who had been forgotten for decades, is more of a formal preamble to what is unknown family history, history that only meticulous research would later uncover, just as time has uncovered this once beautiful entranceway. Even still, the resting place could easily have been entered with a simple concrete path.

I was first introduced to Marie Tillman, wife of Herbert Rhodes, who was born on August 6th, 1882, died December 15, 1904 and Mr. Rhodes, born June 6th, 1883, died May 27, 1904. I imagine they loved each other so deeply that for Marie to live another year without her mate was too much to endure. Seven months later she followed her husband into the afterlife. Not far from her stood another, more than a century old, engraved marble tombstone with the brief statistics of John Tillman, born April 4, 1885, died August 6th, 1899 and a Mrs. Charlie Gaulden Tillman, born April 7th, 1847, died March 2nd, 1925. I observed at least three generations of Tillmans situated near the entrance of the Westend Cemetery, which housed more than 200 years of life and history in the small town of Quitman, Georgia, a mere 80 miles on the outskirts of Tallahassee, Florida.

The graves were all simple, yet dilapidated. It sometimes took pains to make out what was carved on some of the tombstones. In many places the… Continue reading →