Recent discussions on the condition of Oakwood Cemetery have saddened me greatly. I well remember as a child in the 50's, visiting often this then well-manicured and 'perpetually' maintained cemetery in which my paternal great grandmother, grandmother and uncles are buried. There was always a feeling of gracefulness and quiet peace and dignity to this 'resting place' - this land which my great grandmother, Emily Cooke Shore Watkins sold to the city of Richmond August 16, 1854. We were not permitted to walk on any graves back then, though as children we were often awestruck at some of the magnificent grave monuments. The last I heard, a marker for one of my uncles is missing, and someone has cut down the gentle white lilac shrub my grandmother planted at the head of her youngest son's grave. There are supposedly one or two spaces left in grandmother's lot, and I had often imagined I might rest in peace there one day with the Woody's Funeral Home officiating as they have for all family members buried there. Hearing of the deterioration of Oakwood and its surroundings makes that sound not so desireable now. For reasons unknown to us descendants, our CSA veteran grandfather, Robert Dandridge Clarke chose to be buried in 1916 at his home, 'Old Tavern Farm' in Quinton, New Kent County rather than in Oakwood. Charlotte Clarke Geier