The last one standing.

Dear Diary,

Visited the Eastern Cemetery in Portland to find some of my ancestors graves. I did find three stones but only Emily's stone was still standing. The other two, Rebekah her mother and Mary her sister, were broken and lying flat on the ground. I could barely make out the writing on them they were so eroded with time. I felt terribly sad.

Rebekah Howell's, my great,great,great grandmother, husband was a sea captain and died of yellow fever in the west Indies in 1828 and was buried at sea so there was an empty space next to her stone. I found that very touching.

Emily and Mary were unmarried daughters and both died very young. My brief visit to the cemetery has fueled my desire to dig deeper and learn as much as I can about my ancestors. We may be separated by 200+ years but we share DNA and a common story and that is what intrigues me the most.

We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies.

~Shirley Abbott