Volunteers from the Norwich Quarter Cemetery Committee finally placed a missing headstone and did other restorative work at the grounds. (Submitted photos)

It was late June 2008, when my dad received a telephone call; it was a man asking if space was available in his family plot. As the overseer of maintenance and burials at the Norwich Quarter Cemetery, my dad later relayed that space allowed, thus arrangements were made. Ashes would be delivered first and a headstone would follow. Not much other information was given. Within a week the ashes of Katharine S. Duroe arrived, and she was laid to rest with her family, in the Duroe family plot.

Weeks, months followed, but no headstone arrived. My dad tried to phone the man, he believes it was a nephew of Katharine’s, but no further connection could be reached. My dad assumed it would arrive, but no headstone and no further contact would come.

At a recent meeting for the cemetery, the committee that involves my dad, Bob, mom, Marilyn, myself, Elizabeth Neuland, Ted Ellingsen, Robert Evans, Jeff Gibbon, and Barton Snedaker; Katharine’s name and the search for her headstone was revisited. Pouring over records and notes, we thought to reach out to the Ottman Funeral Home in Cherry Valley, as it was remembered her ashes may have been handled by them.