Questions flooded my mind. I have no answers. Of all the questions I asked myself that day, the one that intrigued me most was whether the person selecting his stone realized that it would outlast the others. Geologists understand that vein quartz like that of Mr. Schmidt's stone is one of the strongest materials in nature. It is almost everlasting.
Nearby monuments provide a study in contrasts.
Likewise, the sandstone monument of the Richardson family, erected in the early 20th century, is crumbling back into sand. Granite headstones are abundant in a variety of colors and shapes, and are decomposing much more slowly. But even they are slowly decomposing into sand, silt, and clay, which will ultimately be washed to the nearest stream. Thousands of years from now, all of these nearby stones will have fractured, crumbled and dissolved into the eroded hillside, leaving Mr. Schmidt's headstone to stand like a pink beacon. Graveyard flowers, even the plastic ones, fade, disintegrate, and are engulfed by the soil.