Memorial Day is Special to Me

For as long as I can remember every memorial day my Grandpa Jay never failed to decorate the graves of his parents and family down in Emery County Utah. He had a deep reverence and respect for his ancestors. My mom kept up that tradition and we'd decorate the graves of our loved ones buried in cemeteries from Davis County clear down to Utah county. In later it would take us the whole weekend to get all the graves decorated. We'd tell stories and talk about our loved ones and it was just a special time. Well, sometime I get to be in Utah for Memorial Day but I was happy to learn and realize Steve had family and ancestry buried near us here in Tennessee.

I wanted to do this on Memorial Day but it worked better to go a few days later. I had the wonderful experience of driving with my dear sweet mother and father-in-law to the quaint little town where her mother, her grandparents, and her great grandparents were buried. I love this town, it's so pretty cute, and the people there are quite nice. We knew where one cemetery was, but we found the other thanks to a nice man who was willing to show us. We got to town in time for lunch at a place where Grandma Shirley (my mother in-law's mom) used to go with her daddy for chocolate malts. Too bad they didn't serve those anymore, but we asked our waitress if she'd ever heard of the Mason's cemetery or knew where it was. We were the youngest people by a mile in that restaurant and the waitress noted that and suggested she ask if anyone in there knew about it. A table of older gentlemen knew right where it was and was willing to let us follow him right to it. Once there we were able to locate Marianne's great grandparents marker and it was so exciting. We thanked the nice man again and again, and all he could say was he was glad somebody cared and he often wondered if any of these older graves meant anything to anyone anymore. We were so sad to see that some how due to weather or perhaps mining the three piece headstone and fallen and it was way to heavy for us to move. It was fun to see wild strawberries growing all around it though. The nice man said the current Mason's in the town were slowing repairing the headstones that had fallen in that cemetery, but it takes a lot of time and money, and there are many that need fixing.

One of the purposes of going down there was to decorate the graves with flowers and we found a darling little shop in the town called Work of the Heart that had really beautiful saddles of silk flowers that could straddle the top of the headstone and be clamped on so that they be there for a while. We decorated Marianne's mother (Grandma Shirley), her brother Allan, Her grandfather Hugh, and great grandparents Alzada, and William.

It was a warm and humid day, and it took 3 1/2 hours to get there and 3 1/2 to get back home. needless to say it took some effort to keep the kids happy and get through the day, but when we got home as we were about to say our family prayers and scriptures and get our kids to bed I asked myself why did this do this today. The second I asked myself that I was overwhelmed with a strong feeling of love that the people we visited graves for today love me, they love my kids, and they know that I love them and respect them and the lives they lived. It was a powerful moment, quiet but sweet. I am so grateful that my own grandparents and parents have taught me to have love and respect to our ancestors who have gone before and I am totally amazed that my feelings of love are just as strong for Steve's family, because really they are my family too.