A Gravestone for my Mother

Although my mother, Nancy Nadja Kinny, (and only family) passed many years ago, July 2nd, 2001 to be precise, I have never been able to save enough money to buy her a headstone or marker for her gravesite. I was only 21 when she passed on and it took everything I had in my posession to get her buried and to find a decent plot for her. Although many years have gone by, every time I have ever gotten close to the funds required to make this happen, life somehow rains down and I have to start all over again.

Many of you already know the complications of the situation I was put into and that I do not have any other family to ask for help. This bothers me deeply in many many ways, most I don't feel comfortable addressing here, but here are a few thoughts: First, I cannot truly locate the plot when I go to put flowers on her grave, second, I feel like I have failed her by leaving her resting place barren, and third, it feels like there is nothing there at all and she deserves more than that.

She was a survivor of Dachau (concentration camp) in Nazi Germany, where unfortunately she/we lost most of our direct family to unethical human experimentation, starvation, and/or plain old fashioned murder.  She had just finished going back to college at 50 yrs old as a full-time student to beat me to get her Bachelor's degree at Temple University in 2000, one year before I graduated from Sarah Lawrence, and one year before her death.  She was 55 years old.

I do not have funds to afford a round-trip ticket to get to Philadelphia or for a hotel stay in order to get this accomplished, let alone enough money to buy her a headstone worthy of who she was as a person in life.

I know there are many other wonderful charitable organizations and happenings to donate to, granted, this is not a life or death situation, but it would mean the world to me if anyone could reach out from their hearts and help me procure enough funds to get to Philadelphia and purchase a final and official gravestone for her.

I am not thinking anything super fancy or extravagant, just something timeless, simple and classic, like her... She was the most beautiful soul I have ever known, and this is just something that I need to do, and hopefully soon. 

Thank you kindly,

Karen Kinny