Rosemary Grant is a librarian, who started a cemetery-themed TikTok as a graduate student. Back then, she just had in mind to spread positivity around cemeteries and death, as a way to honor those who have passed.
Grant, also passionate about cooking and history, spent whole hours walking around cemeteries during the pandemic.
That’s when she discovered that not all gravestones have a name and year of death inscribed. In fact, they sometimes have “delicious content” inscribed, too.
“I downloaded TikTok for the first time, I started going to cemeteries regularly, and then I started cooking for the first time,” she recalled in an interview with Good Morning America.
Let’s admit it. what we all did more or less during the dark times of quarantine was go for a walk and cook and bake all the time.
And, actually, this is what Rose did. Only with a twist.
The recipes that she cooked were not inspired by some other TikToker or a famous chef, but from the great beyond!
“When I heard about the first recipe on a gravestone, it felt like ‘Why not try it and post about it and see what happens?'” she said of how this whole thing started. “And it took off in a way I would never have expected.”
You see, the very first video in which she shared a gravestone recipe amassed almost 1.5 million views! And the ones that followed have also been viewed thousands of times. People just love what she’s doing.
The first gravestone recipe was from Naomi Miller-Dawson’s grave in Green Wood Cemetery, and it was a recipe for spritz cookies. Grant tried it and she actually said that it was “as if a sugar cookie and a shortbread cookie had a baby”.
She has since tried a fudge recipe, one for Christmas cookies, and chocolate oatmeal cookies, and she’s still got more to try. She’s really excited about this journey, and so are people who follow her on social media.
The Internet has loved this idea, and several people have already recreated some of the gravestone recipes Rose has shared.
They also seem to understand why some people chose to inscribe recipes on their headstones.
“This is so beautiful! I’m sure the passed loved ones would be honored their beloved recipe lives on. And so a little part of them does too!” someone commented on YouTube.
Indeed, as Grant said, she believes that cemeteries are really places for the living rather than the dead. This is where they can go and pay tribute to their loved ones that have passed away.
And having a favorite recipe like the deceased loved one used to make it inscribed on their gravestone kind of gives a sense of comfort. As Rose puts it,
“It’s a comfortable gateway with an uncomfortable topic.”
If you want to find these recipes, head over to Rose’s TikTok.
Click below to see Rose talk about this unique journey.
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