Madison: I am originally from Lander, Wyoming. I went to school at the University of Wyoming and met my husband there. I went to school for art education in Spanish, and while I was doing my student teaching, we found out that we were expecting our first child, which was super exciting, kind of nerve wracking, but we were really looking forward to this next chapter in our lives. 

After we graduated college, my husband's job took us to Denver, Colorado. We knew we wouldn't be there long term, but it was kind of a nice stepping stone into the right direction for our future. You know, just as anyone does, you have your life lined out…you think you know kind of what the future's gonna bring. 

So we moved down there, and unfortunately our son was stillborn. His name is Tucker, and we lost him at 37 weeks. And it's the worst thing either of us have ever had to experience. Just a very difficult trial in our lives, obviously, and we still think of him and love him and celebrate his memory. But at the time, I remember just feeling so conflicted, not knowing where we should bury him, because we didn't know where we would end up. And it really tore at my heart to think I could be living far away for the next couple decades of my life. I don't want him to be alone. And that really bothered me for some reason. And I mean, everyone feels differently, but I just really didn't like the feeling of burying him in a place and then being far away for the rest of my life. And, you know, do I get buried by him if I've lived my whole life somewhere else? 

Anyways, it just really weighed on my heart, but we felt it should be one of our hometowns, either Lander or Star Valley because we weren't going to bury him in Denver where we knew we just would move from. Luckily both of our families still live in our hometowns, so at least he would have family that could kind of keep an eye on the cemetery plot and be close by. We decided that we would bury him in Star Valley where my husband grew up. His family had some plots in the Freedom Cemetery, and I felt good about that decision. We just thought, at the very least, he'll be close to family. It's a place–very special–for us because my husband loves the area and I do, too. But obviously, it's from his childhood. So that's what we decided, and we felt good about it. He has a beautiful headstone. It's a beautiful cemetery looking over rolling hills. You see the mountains. I mean, Star Valley in general is just so beautiful. It felt nice that it was his resting place. 

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.