In Portland, Maine’s Eastern Cemetery, tall grasses tilt in the breeze among the winged death’s heads. Across the gently undulating landscape, granite and slate tablets inscribed with names and dates, weeping willows and decorative urns mark the final resting place of some 4,000, most interred between 1668 and 1930. Intricate designs and mismatched letters, some sharp and bold, others faded nearly to illegibility, tell the stories of the past in beautiful, hand-carved relief. Just down the road at the Forest City Cemetery, opened in 1958, the view is very different….
