Mount Emblem Cemetery

Very peaceful and pretty. Wish they’d renovate the windmill so you could go in it.

It’s pretty hard to «review» a cemetery. The grounds are nice, and host many generations of my family. On our most recent trip to lay another to rest, I was a little surprised with the speed at which the groundskeepers swept in to fill in the hole and lay the grass back. We barely got into our cars before the golf cart zoomed in with shovels and dirt. This is to say nothing of the grounds crew standing 20 feet away during services waiting like vultures.
Yikes folks, if you’re in such a hurry I’m sure we can uh, reschedule or something? It was a little disrespectful to the family.

How does one rate a cemetery, exactly? Well, here’s what I know: I think the grounds are beautiful. The aged trees, well-​placed shrubs, hills, and Lake Emblem make this one of the better cemeteries in Illinois. The land used to be completely flat farmland, but the only way anyone could distinguish that is from the old Fischer Windmill that greets cars turning into the main entrance.
The only cons, I would argue, about the cemetery would be that 1) the noise from airplanes landing at O’Hare is VERY loud, BUT that will be eliminated completely once the new east-​west runways are constructed and the flight patterns change. 2) Historically, the management of Mount Emblem has done nothing to restore the Fischer Windmill, BUT that, too, is something that I hope will change.
Many of my relatives are resting here, and so of course this place means a lot to me and to my family. I challenge anyone to find a cemetery as unique and as well-​maintained as this one.