Silver Cord of Heritage 

Remarks made on 19 October 2024 at the cenotaph site dedication for John and Jane Talley at the Charles Talley Memorial Cemetery in Hickman County, TN. 

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Two hundred and forty three years ago, on October 19th, the British general__Lord Cornwallis__surrendered his army to General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.  It was the last major battle between British and American forces during the American Revolution.

Our ancestor, John Talley, was there.  He would remember it as the "fight at Little York." That was part of the heritage he left us.

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And yet__for a time__there was chance he and his wife, Jane, and their heritage would disappear into the abyss of history.  The easy wrong would have been to forget them. The hard right was to remember them.

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Lost headstones can be replaced.  But the silver cord of heritage is different.  The three strands of _family_community_nation_ make a strong cord.  But our cord was broken. In finding John and Jane, we have remade it, and our heritage is stronger for our having done so.

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Today we renew our commitment in remembering our ancestors. Their headstones bear witness to our effort.  We place them here to remind us and future generations that heritage is costly, but worth the price.

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We also reaffirm John's service to our nation.

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His remains may be elsewhere, but as a soldier and as a Patriot his spirit is here with his descendants and others who have served our nation.  Here, with them, he can serve again.

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Today, within this sacred space, we renew our bond with our family and our nation's heritage.

In doing so, we leave stronger and more mindful of the trust John and Jane bequeathed us:

That our silver cord of heritage, now remade, from this day forth, remains unbroken.​​​