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| In
July 2000, our trip to Virginia
resulted in the discovery of the gravestone of Richard and Narcissa
Forrester - great-great-grandparents to our four children -
in the Barton Heights cemeteries.
This good fortune came about as the result of a two hour search
and the persistence of our son Keith. He found the corner
of a marker that was buried and began scraping away grass, dirt
and twigs. Two inches beneath the soil was the stone,
broken in two pieces. Our children, Ashley - 13, Keith - 12,
Jordan - 11, and Gabrielle - 9, were very excited to find the
stone. |
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We removed the marker and brought it to the John Stevens Shop
in Rhode Island for restoration. Significant for us
is the fact that the John Stevens Shop is America's oldest
continual service stonecutting shop since 1705, and is the
place where Zingo Stevens, America's first African artist
in the mid to late eighteenth century, created burial markers.
Nick Benson, owner of the shop, did a wonderful job bringing
the two pieces together without changing the original carving.
On May 16th, 2005 we returned to Richmond, Virginia with our
daughter Ashley, now 18, for the Whit-Monday ceremony held
at the Barton Heights Cemeteries. The three of us spent all
morning digging the hole for the stone and replacing it, then
planting perennial flowers.
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Keith &
Ashley prepare to replace the stone. Fortunately, the site
had a base marker or we would never have remembered where
to put it!
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The now-reinforced
stone looks good standing in its original place. |
Once the flowers
were planted, it was hard to tell that the stone had ever
been moved. The Whit-Monday ceremony held in the cemetery
later that day made the event extra special. |
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