Branwood J. Wilding

I saw various interesting markers during my trip to the main White Plains NY cemetery, one that does not to my knowledge include any relatives or ancestors of me personally. One thing that struck me were the various types of markers, various sizes and quality, some of the most simple ones (the "residents" were born as far back as the 18th Century) worn down so much that no markings are visible. As with some tombstones fallen over or cracked another nearby smaller cemetery, this seemed to me a bit sad.  There should be some way to at least see the names.

The life stories of the buried can be readily imagined, even without various little markers that show they are veterans of wars back to 1776 (also, the War of 1812, the Grand Army of the Republic/Civil War, WWI and WWII).  For instance, there is a set of three or four tombstones of the same family, but the nicest one is a reddish marble for a woman who died in her twenties in the 1860s. Various markers, including two long lived survivors of the 18th Century, were for husband and wife, there were various for young children, including infants.  It all had something of an Our Town feel, the play that represents small town American everywhere.

The photo was one that piqued my interest, since he seems to be a veteran, but did not die during WWII as such.  [The pink marker was a warning against leaving certain things at the tombstone.] Turns out Branwood Wilding (a close relative died about sixty years later, the obit reverencing BW) had at least two notable things occur. A NYT news article from the time reports that he along with two friends as teenagers  witnessed a kidnapping, the wider story accounted here.  Later, he died along with the others onboard, when his B-29 crashed shortly after taking off from a military base.  The Marshall Islands base was also part of the service of this person, who did survive his own (separate) time there. 

I was also curious about a "Joan C. Bogert," who had an American flag at her grave, but no little marker referencing military service.  She died when she was about thirty in 1950, so perhaps the flag was to honor some sort of work she did during WWII.  A quick search did not bring up anything unless a mention about a tennis match with someone of that name (the time of the article seems to fit) concerns her.  How did she die at such an early age?  Any number of possibilities, of course.  A writer could get a lot of inspiration from this and other markers at many a cemetery.

I referenced the religious connotations of human graves and continue to think a core aspect of "religion" is what sort of meaning we give to life. Justice Stevens had the right idea:

The more precise constitutional significance of death is difficult to describe; not much may be said with confidence about death unless it is said from faith, and that alone is reason enough to protect the freedom to conform choices about death to individual conscience.

At any rate, "in memoriam" as proper.