It has become my habit to listen to American MSNBC News each morning as I walk the dog. This is not as difficult as it sounds : you just tell your computer to automatically download the podcast of the evening news and then transfer it onto a passing MP3 Player. Judging by what the station sees as the main items of national and international news, there is both good news and bad news. The good news is that the country has managed to survive "the tragic death of the world's greatest ever entertainer", the bad news is that the country is beset by a new crime wave which takes the form of the multiple selling of cemetery plots. The idea seems to be that you sell a plot to a family and then after a suitable time - when distraught mourners no longer regularly bring tear-stained bouquets of flowers - you dig the body up, smooth the ground over and sell the plot again. This would seem to be the kind of entrepreneurial initiative that we are so in need of in order to clime our way out of the current recession and I have sent a copy of the newspaper clipping to our new Entrepreneurial Tsar, Lord Sugar of Canderel.
By chance I was sorting through a box of family papers looking for something interesting to post about (Friday is, after all, Family History Day on News From Nowhere) and I came across this certificate concerning Plot 988 (Section E) of Bowling Cemetery. The Abraham Moore in question is my fathers', sisters', husbands', father (perhaps I should draw a diagram but I can't be bothered). As far as I know my Uncle Harry was the surviving child and when he died I inherited all that was left. There was a nice little house which saw us through some difficult times when we were poor. Other than that, I thought there were only a few photographs and a piano stool. But now, it seems, I also inherited a burial plot.
Next week, when I have a bit of free time, I will hot-foot over to Bowling (a suburb of Bradford) and inspect my inheritance. I hope that the American business model has not spread to this country yet. I will report back.
Not quite clear - is this a burial plot for YOU? Or is it your relative's burial plot you intend to re-use as per comments in your posting?
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