I’ve already been to Cuffy’s Cove once, but when we were there the first time, we belatedly realized that we had missed a huge chunk of the cemetery, although we got some nice shots of the Catholic section. So when my fellow photo adventurer and I went on a roundup of the last coastally located public cemeteries last month, we decided to go back to Cuffy’s Cove and capture the excellence of the community cemetery.

It was our last stop to the day, and we were starting to flag. The weather was also getting foul, as always seems to happen whenever I go to Cuffy’s Cove, so there was a freezing cold wind whipping around us and ominous clouds scudded overhead. And, of course, I was wearing a long sleeved shirt, so the sleeves kept getting pushed into the lens by the wind.

But it was worth it. It was worth it for this headstone alone:

This is, bar none, the most amazing headstone I have ever seen. The level of detail is just incredible, and I’m fairly certain that it was carved be a local artisan. I also happen to know the resident of the grave, and I think it’s a very fitting headstone, all things considered. At the other end, there’s a bench, so you can sit and look out the ocean, or turn back and ponder this incredible work of art. This, my friends, is the kind of headstone I would want to have.

This is on the back, on the upper portion of the headstone.

This magnificent urn is on an obelisk in the Northwestern corner of the cemetery. (Yes, I have to climb it to get this shot, and no, you can’t see the picture of me climbing the obelisk.)

Here’s the urn in situ. Some very cool carving on here, interspersed with all that awesome electric orange lichen. Which looked more red in the cemetery, because I was wearing my sunglasses. Everything is redder with my sunglasses. So much for “not distorting colors.”

Here’s a baby grave. You know me, I can’t resist a baby grave. Uhm, that sounds less heinous in person, I swear.

Here’s a footstone without a headstone. Poor footstone, all alone.

Rather than actually sharing real estate, I suspect these bodies were never recovered, so their families probably decided to make a monument to all three, rather than putting up three headstones over empty graves. It’s always interesting to see Scandinavians, because most of them lived out in Comptche.

How now, Charlie Brown? (The date is 1896, if you’re having trouble reading.)

“Isaac Snickers” would be a great name for a book, don’t you think? This Snickers must be lonely, all the others are in the Catholic Cemetery. I think there must be an interesting story behind that.

My photo companion pointed out that these headstones always remind him of sausages, and that was when I decided that my headstone will be shaped like bacon. Or maybe my footstone. What I’m saying is that bacon will definitely be involved in my monument. And yes, I can have bacon and an awesome Greek goddess too, darnit. And a winged angel of death. My tomb is going to be so garish, it will be banned in six counties. These headstones remind me more of the special pillows used by geishas so that they don’t mess up their hair at night.

And that concludes the cemetery extravaganza. If you want to look at the regional coastal cemeteries from top to bottom, here they all are: Inglenook Cemetery, Ocean View Cemetery, Rose Memorial Park, Caspar Cemetery, Hillcrest Cemetery, Evergreen Cemetery, Little River Cemetery, and the Catholic section of Cuffy’s Cove. If anyone knows of some lurking public cemeteries between these which I haven’t visited, please let me know. And, of course, if someone is willing to open their private cemetery to me, I would be honored.