Okay, Sis...

Sorry I can't be there with all of you tomorrow (which is today, now), so here's some of my thoughts:

We'll start with the backside, 'cause that's the easiest. Just our name, framed in a box like this one.

A stone which should be quite similar to what Dad bought. The alternative is to simply engrave the name into the stone without embellishment, like "Bishop" on the left here:

But you'll notice most the others are boxed like "Bryan" or "Pollart", and it seems to look better.

If Dad is still wondering about the bronze military service plaque that goes on the back, you can apparently get full size

or small.

The ones we found were embossed with name, rank and branch of service, theater of operations, and their dates.

But you'll notice the plaque for the elder Roger Pagels above also made mention of his medals.

Now, the front:

I again prefer the names and vitals engraved in frames

rather than engraved straight into the stone...

I think I prefer the simple square boxes rather than some designed to look like scrolls or opened books. Although these mountain-topped boxes were nice.

And speaking of mountains...

I know we mentioned flowers in the upper corners, but the more I look at stones like "Box" or "Hardeman" above, the more I like mountains instead. They remind me of the times we spent as a family in those very mountains. And since that's what the headstone is made of...

I know I told Dad I liked the font used on his folks' stone, but checking my photos, I'm having second thoughts. The "H" is kinda funky.

Again, the font on the "Hardeman" stone looks good.

I don't remember if Dad already made a decision on the photo... color or black and white? Most of the ones we found were color

but black and white seemed to work as well.

I found a sepia-toned one

that looked good, and I liked it. The heart-shaped frame was most common, but I actually liked the ones without any frame better.

But a diamond frame like Dad was talking about before should be fine.

Their anniversary photo would probably still be best, but after wandering amongst stones for members of the Greatest Generation, I noticed a lot of them used their wedding photos. Was wondering about the black and white picture you found of the two of them from before their wedding, the one used in Mom's memorial service.

They certainly looked good in that one. But it probably isn't high enough quality for casting in ceramic.

Many engraved their wedding dates, and as an amateur genealogist, I see the benefits of carving that record in stone. But if it makes things look cluttered, yeah, you can leave it off.

And speaking of cluttered... after looking around, I would vote against engraving a Boston on their stone. If our brother really likes the idea, we can put one on his.

I still think Mom should have a rose, and like the one Belle has on her stone:

Not sure where to put it, though. Kinda like the arrangement of this stone

although we might want to drop the personal icon images down below the family name, rather than alongside it. I just don't know how they would look with the names and dates enclosed in frames.

Regarding Dad's Flag Raising on Iwo Jima... I hope the monument guy has had better luck finding an artistic rendering of that than I. From photos and clipart I found I have created several black and white versions, but they all have problems.

This

is probably exactly the type of line drawing he was looking for, but unfortunately has a modern 50-star flag instead of the correct 48-star version Dad guarded that night.

This

has the correct flag, but is kinda blocky and is probably too small to convert nicely to real-world size on a stone.

And I created this

from Rosenthal's original photo, but I don't know if it can be engraved on stone. But it should be large enough.

Sorry we can't be there to help you guys, but I'm still burning up vacation time before the end of the year, so should be home if you want to call with any questions.

Say "Hi" to Mom for us.

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