A Walk In The Cemetery

Ever since I can remember I've had this strange attraction to cemeteries.  It's hard to pass one by as I'm driving.  I want to stop and wander between the headstones.  Many people have commented on my vacation pictures and how I always have pictures from cemeteries in them.  How can you not be fascinated by them, there is so much history in one.  I went to the Lithuanian National Cemetery in Justice Illinois today to visit the graves of my grandparents Joseph and Martha White.  I have been visiting this cemetery for so many years, probably since my Grandpa died in 1967.  I always wanted to go with my Dad and my Grandma to visit and plant flowers on Grandpa's grave.  Now she has joined him in July of 2004.  I remember walking around with my Grandma and Mom and them telling me of family and friends that they lost and showing me their graves.  A lot of the headstones are in Lithuanian so Grandma would try and translate for me, Mom would help although her Lithuanian was not as good as Grandma's.  As Mom and I wandered through all these headstones today we marveled at the size of some of these monuments and how you just don't see this anymore.  Who could afford it?  We came across a monument with a picture on it and I said, "Boy was that guy big!"  She looked at it and said, "I know who that is, he was a wrestler!"  She told me of how he was so scary looking, but such a gentle man.  My favorite area has always been the section just next to my grandparent's section.  There are so many children in this section and some that you can't even read the wording on anymore, which is so sad.  One that always touches my heart has a picture of a little girl on it and all the writing is worn off.  I always tell her I remember her.  And the little boy in the sailor suit is just too adorable.  My husband thinks I'm nuts for taking all these pictures of cemeteries and headstone, but it's like looking at history to me.  All that is left is their remains and probably no one left to remember them.  So let me remember them when I visit and don't laugh when I say hello to them, it's like seeing old friends again.