Saturday was a very busy day. Earl and I are visiting family here. It is Memorial Day weekend and there has been a family tradition that has been going on for decades. Now that my Dad passed away 13 years ago, the rest of the family, in this area, are carrying on that tradition There is a lot of history that is uncovered in the process as well.
The morning begins with as many of my sisters as can and my Mom, as well as some of the grand-children, decorating the graves of my Dad and brother-in-law at the cemetery in town. It is a group effort with Mom in charge of the process. Cemeteries in this county allow grave sites to be decorated with live plants, unlike some places where only artificial or cut flowers are allowed and the cut flowers are removed by the grounds keepers after a short time. We prepare the area around the headstone then plant the plants.
It takes awhile, but the end result always looks very nice.
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After we finish in town, we go to other cemeteries in the area where relatives(Great-grandparents, Grandparents, Great-Aunts & Great- Uncles, an Aunt and cousins) are buried and plant a flower at each of their graves. There are several at one the cemetery in Lodi. It is a beautiful place. When we were there, the wind was blowing all of the flags, that had been placed on veterans’ graves, so that you could see the whole flag. It was very impressive to see so many flags flying over those who gave their service to keep us free.
My Dad’s Grandparents are buried in a very old cemetery beside a church. There are some head stones from the 1800’s there. This one with a lamb on it appears to say that the child was 3 months and 8days old at the time of death, in possibly 1867? It I very hard to read because it is very weathered. Unfortunately, this cemetery is deteriorating. Some headstones are crumbling , have fallen off their base and are leaning on other ones nearby where people have tried to upright them.
After the decorating was done, one of my sisters, Earl and I went shopping for food for the family picnic on Memorial Day. While we were gone, Mom and another of my sisters let me know that they had found a stuffed animal that I had been looking for. We got home (back to the trailer, our home away from home) and put everything away , then I went over to Mom’s apartment to see what they had found. MEET BUMBLE, THE BEE! Mom presented her to me like a new baby.
Bumble will travel with us during our summer trip. She will be visiting all of the places that we visit and I will keep a log of her travels to give to our granddaughter after we get home.
Sunday was a day spent helping do some yard work for Mom at her house. Although she now lives at her apartment, she still has her house and goes there on occasion. Because we live so far away, we were glad to be able to help her with some chores, which we can not ordinarily do. There was a great backyard grilled dinner at the end of the day.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day and will be a very active day.
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