When did I stop being afraid to go to cemeteries? Was it when I began doing genealogy, or after I attended enough funerals of people I loved and knew? I think it was a little of both. Jim and I started going to put flowers on the family graves on the weekend of Memorial Day quite a few years ago now, and I think we both have this feeling of responsibility and honor that we are able to do it.
We pack up the flowers, bucket and hand tools for cleaning, along with some extra water in case the faucets are not turned on yet at the cemeteries. I don't speak out loud to the people buried in the graves or anything, but I do speak to them silently in my mind. Sound crazy? I don't think so, but then, that's just me.
This last Sunday we went down to Olympia to have a birthday celebration for my brother Dave who was turning 61 on the 28th, so before we were to meet him and his wife Kathy at the Outback, we got down there early and went to the Masonic Cemetery on North Street and cleaned the headstones and put flowers on the graves. Just a short distance from there, on the old Littlerock Road is the Memorial Park Cemetery where my parents are buried. By the time we got there we were both kind of hungry, so we sat in the car and ate some sandwiches we had bought at Safeway. Hence, title of this post.
This particular cemetery, unlike the Masonic one, does a wonderful flag display each year and as you drive in the gate you are greeted with the vision of hundreds of small flags put on the veteran's graves by the service groups as well as the many large flags that line all the roadways on either side. It happened to be windy on Sunday and all the flags were proudly flapping in the breeze while hoards of people came, placed their floral tributes and left.
One of the really neat things that we saw at the cemetery was that Mills and Mills had men in orange safely vests for visibility standing by with laptops slung over their shoulders ready to help anyone who was finding it difficult to locate a gravesite. I had never seen that before, but we both thought it was a great idea. Maybe it will catch on in other locations too ??!
Originally posted on Pentimento. (c) 2007
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Comments: 14
That's neat that people were available to direct visitors to the correct grave site.
great article
findagrave.com
I am a volunteer photographer for them.
People all over the world can request photos from any cemetary..an emial then goes out to whom ever lives closest to that cemetary and then hopefully someone tries to find the grave and document it.
you can search for famous graves too through the site.
I think cemetaries are one of the last beautiful peaceful places left in this world.
I had a little 'dispute' with FindAGrave recently. They have two sections of their site: one for famous people, and one for the regular folks gravestones. I had submitted the grave of my cousin William Livingstone Holmes who is buried in Mountain View cemetery in Oregon City. They turned me down because they didn't think he was famous. First of all, William and his wife donated the land for that cemetery, as well as land for the Masonic one too. Second, Wm. was the first sheriff of Clackamas County, OR in the 1840's. Third, he was on the first organized wagon train to reach Oregon Territory in 1843. Being the first sheriff of (what was then a very large county) Clackamas county makes him famous in his time. The one's that FindAGrave consider famous though are a midget, and the man they named Ogden, Utah after. And we wonder why children have no concept of United States history. Where would they find it??
I will check out your article Elizabeth. :)