I read something the other day that’s been on my mind ever since. It said that in just a few generations, our names won’t even come up in family conversations. That’s a hard truth to accept.
I think about it sometimes when I walk through Cedar Grove Cemetery. There are rows and rows of stones with names carved deep in the rock. Most I recognize, some I don’t. Yet every one of those names belonged to someone who once had a life as full as ours. They worked in these fields, drove down these back roads, laughed with friends at the Dairy Dip or Stanley’s, or before they had any kind of hang out., They sat in church pews on Sundays, and worried about the same everyday things we do now. But as the years rolled on, their voices grew quiet, their stories faded, and now they’re remembered mostly as letters etched in stone.
And isn’t it sad to realize that one day, we’ll be the same? Outside of maybe our name written in a family Bible or carved into a headstone, we’ll slip from memory too. That’s the way life works—we just come and go. We step onto the stage for a little while, play our part, and then the curtain closes. Time keeps moving forward, whether we’re ready or not.
It’s humbling to know that everything we think is so important today will one day be forgotten. Our names won’t be called at family reunions, our stories won’t be told around the table, and our daily struggles won’t mean much to anyone down the line. We are here for only a season, and then the world moves on.
But maybe that’s the point. Our purpose isn’t to be remembered forever by name, but to leave behind something worth carrying forward. A kind word. A helping hand. A life lived with honesty, laughter, and love. The truth is, names fade—but the spirit of how we lived ripples on through our children, our neighbors, and our community.
So yes, one day we’ll just be a name in a Bible or on a stone in a cemetery But if we’ve lived right, the goodness we shared won’t be forgotten—it will still be alive in Todd County, in the way people treat one another, in the traditions passed down, and in the simple joys of small-town life that connect us all.