Jakov,
Thank you. I agree, this really is a different idea for a headstone. I visit this nearby cemetery often and I had not noticed this marker. Turns out it is for a couple and the man just died a year ago, and the marker had not been placed until recently. I also missed the intended meaning. Before I read the inscription, I thought that the gate referred to the gates of heaven. But then why would it be closed? It certainly doesn't look like Rodin's gates of Hell which of course one would prefer to be closed. Wonderful wrought iron work by the way.
Lowell