Hi, everyone. I am Sarah Gregory. My mother, Cinda Gregory, was sick with cancer for 7 years. She died on May 11, 2021 at the age of 61. Following my mom’s death, she was cremated, and my children and I never had the opportunity to see her ashes. They are buried or scattered on private property. A stone was never purchased to honor her.
I miss my mother and want to have a way for my three daughters and me to memorialize her life. We don’t have a cemetery stone to visit and leave flowers at, which makes it hard, especially around the holidays like Mother’s Day and her birthday.
When I was a child, my mom used to take me to cemeteries regularly. She had a particular cemetery that was her favorite, located a few miles from her home. She told me many times that she wanted to be buried there. I remember frequently driving by the cemetery with her. She would always point out the beautiful way the sun would hit the stones and explain that she thought it was the perfect place to be buried.
Although I wasn’t able to bury her remains in this cemetery following her death, I would like to have a cenotaph placed in this location in memory of her. Cenotaphs are used in cases where a person’s remains are not in the plot, but they provide a memorial in a public location, accessible to all who were touched by their life.
The past three years have been difficult. My children miss their grandmother, and I wish I had a place to take them with a cemetery stone to remember her and celebrate her life. It’s been hard to move on without ever even seeing her remains, but I feel like a memorial in a place where she wished to be buried will honor her life and help provide closure for my family.
The money raised will go toward the purchase of a stone in memory of my mother and the associated costs of placing it in the cemetery she chose, Sherburne West Hill Cemetery, in Sherburne, NY.