Interested in Cemeteries? There’s a Word for That!

November 29, 2022

David McConkey

When it comes to cemeteries, I am an aficionado, a devotee, an enthusiast. But until I read a recent newspaper article I didn’t know there was a specific word for people like me. The main topic in that story in the Washington Post was pretty interesting as well.

First: what is the word? The word for someone interested in cemeteries and related concerns is a taphophile. It comes from Greek. And we taphophiles know how interesting and enriching a walk in a cemetery can be, whether the objective is to be in a quiet natural setting or to learn about the lives and deaths of our fellow citizens.

The main topic of the Washington Post article was about Rosie Grant who has travelled the U.S. looking for headstones with recipes printed on them. Grant, 33, has found about a dozen of such recipes and has made all of them.

“Cooking these recipes has shown me an alternative side to death,” Grant tells the Post. “It is a way to memorialize someone and celebrate their life.”

The recipes and the resulting baking – fudge, cookies, cakes and pies – sound delicious. They also strike me as foods especially appropriate for sharing with others, and for serving at a memorial service or celebration of life event. 

And of course Grant says that the products of her cemetery-found recipes are "to die for."