Bart Barker's Dead Ancestor Collection

For most of my life I've been collecting dead presidents, yet I feel a certain irony honoring men, many of whom I do not respect. Thus I begin this collection of graves of my ancestors, for they each are an essential part of who I am.

Fortunately, three of my ancestors are still alive and healthy. There are another three whom I spent enough time with to say that I love and admire them not just as abstract kinship terms but as individuals. The rest are just stories or names in my ahnentafel.

So, I honor the dead not just for making my life possible, but for giving it flavor and joy. And in doing so, I hope to honor the living, my family, who I am very proud of and proud to be a part of.

They're more than family, they're my friends.