The optimist and the buddy

The cemetery at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where my friend is a graduate student, contains the graves of three sisters. The girls were Revolutionary War heroes as well as part of a family that was important in the university's history.

But what caught my eye were these two gravestones. I'm always curious about the stories behind the gravestones. And these two stones provide some interesting clues.

Doris Marie Seward, above, planned ahead. Her gravestone was already carved and ready for her death sometime this century. But, as her headstone shows, she was both optimistic and thrifty.

The other gravestone contains only a first name, "Buddy". He was 14 years old when he died, and I suspect that he was a beloved dog rather than a teenager who met an untimely death.