
Indiana
11/1/2026 | 4m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
Randy reflects on the nature of death and the importance of where a person is buried.
A born-and-bred Hoosier, Randy values his sense of belonging as well as connecting to those who have gone before. From discovering impromptu graves in his cellar to making a backyard memorial for his brother whose body was never recovered, he reflects on the nature of death and the importance of where a person is buried. Filmed in 2010.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
States of America is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television

Indiana
11/1/2026 | 4m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
A born-and-bred Hoosier, Randy values his sense of belonging as well as connecting to those who have gone before. From discovering impromptu graves in his cellar to making a backyard memorial for his brother whose body was never recovered, he reflects on the nature of death and the importance of where a person is buried. Filmed in 2010.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Where to Watch States of America
States of America is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(wind blowing) - When we moved from one house to another, sometimes it seems like it's a year before a house feels like home to you and I don't think I could ever move anyplace else and truly feel at home.
(plucky violin music) If you've been born in Indiana and you've got know Indiana then no matter where you go, you take a part of Indiana with ya and that makes you a Hoosier.
When we first moved into this house, we didn't know the history of the house and then we came to find out that there were babies that were found in the cellar.
Baby bodies.
Look back in through here.
I don't know if you can see anything back there or not but there is a crawl space back there that's about three foot tall and it goes for approximately twenty feet and that's where they found the bodies of the little babies from a long time ago.
(wind blowing) There was a midwife that lived on this property and they just were under the assumption that the midwife preformed abortions.
A lot of people's concerns was ghosts but we know how to handle that.
We have a Savior we talk to whenever we feel like there may be something like that coming on.
(laughs) (objects rustling) In the olden days, where did you where'd you bury your family at?
You took them underneath the tree in the backyard and you buried your family close at hand so that the closer they were to ya, the more comforted you were.
That's a memorial to my older brother right there and he went to Canada with some friends and got dumped over in the English River and he drowned from hypothermia.
I talked with his brother-in-law and he said, he just kind of looked at him with a solemn smile and slowly went under and that was the last they saw of him.
And I thought, you know, that's how life goes, ya know.
That's just how life goes sometimes.
Sometimes you make it to an old age and sometimes you don't.
They never did recover his body so I built a little memorial out here just as memory to my older brother.
It's kind of irrelevant, the body portion of it.
All it is is just a memory and I have a memory of my brother and I would just as soon keep the good memories as to go back and think about the death portion of it.
(slow plucky violin music) I think of Fall as the latter portion of a person's life.
Spring would be the birth, Summer is the growth part of your life.
All of sudden, boom, there you are, it's Fall and then the Winter would be the death.
I don't have an issue with death because I know that it's inevitable.
(warmer guitar music) In Indiana, my family goes back into the 1800's.
My mother and father-in-law lived over by a cemetery and after getting into the genealogy, I realized that this one cemetery had a relation of mine from back in the 1800's and so that's where me and my wife have decided that we're going to intern whenever we pass away.
And I don't think I could ever move anyplace else and truly feel at home because to me, there's nothing like it.
(upbeat instrumental music)
New Episode- News and Public Affairs

Top journalists deliver compelling original analysis of the hour's headlines.

- News and Public Affairs

Today's top journalists discuss Washington's current political events and public affairs.



New Episode


New Episode



Support for PBS provided by:
States of America is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television