Alberta-based author Nancy Millar tells us that twenty years of wandering through cemeteries has taught her that Canadians have grown increasingly fond of pithy epitaphs. "I was trying to show that Canadians are interesting and can be interesting in their graveyards," she said in support of a book she's written, The Final Word: The Book of Canadian Epitaphs. This is a tall order, though she seems to manage it with some aplomb. Absent from her bit of scholarship, however, is perhaps the most entertaining piece of headstone literature to be found anywhere in the provinces and territories. The verse is etched on the back of John Laird McCaffrey’s headstone in Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, and owes its existence to the team of Mr. McCaffrey's ex-wife and erstwhile mistress, who thought it best to pay tribute to the man in the following way:
Free your body and soul,
Unfold your powerful wings,
Climb up the highest mountains,
Kick your feet up in the air,
You may now live forever,
Or return to this earth,
Unless you feel good where you are.
It's not much of a poem, but it expresses one hell of a sentiment -- vertically anyways.
