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| Cottonwood Butte from Gilbert Cemetery |
It was cold this morning as Mike and I visited the Gilbert Cemetery with two fresh bouquets – one for Milo’s grave and the other for my dad’s. Sometimes I place artificial flowers on all the family graves, but this year I have other things to do.
Yesterday as I toured the yard, I thought I had enough flowers for the two bouquets – lilacs, iris, spirea. This morning, the lilacs are turning brown, the remaining iris are few, and the spirea flowers are dropping like snow. More iris will bloom out in a day or two but too late for us. We must visit the cemetery early this year.
The caretaker was mowing in preparation for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. We had a nice visit and expressed appreciation for his work. This is an old cemetery, and we know from experience that not many will visit, which makes his efforts all the more meaningful. I suppose we have more graves here than any other family – 24.
Milo’s
marker is next to Ina and Jack’s, his great-grandparents.
Coming up – more about farmhouse kitchen practices. KW
As a child Memorial Day weekend was a big event. A whole day was spent going to cemeteries and putting flowers on the graves. Real flowers. Not artificial. And then a picnic at the park in Clarkston. A family event. But also a lot of family history was learned in visiting the cemetery. Sadly those traditions are falling by the way side. Slowly fading away.
ReplyDeleteYes, we had to schedule out the cemetery visits -- Orofino first a day early. Then a loop to Troy and on to Lewiston. Eventually Mother would add Cavendish and Grangeville to her list, but by that time I had little children and couldn't participate. We also began to run short of flowers for bouquets, so Mother (Becky's grandmother) began to plant cemetery boxes. I agree that it was a great way to learn family history.
ReplyDeleteToday, I feel bad that I don't visit those graves, especially Mother's, since the tradition was so important to her, but as Becky points out, it's a tradition that fades away, possibly for more reasons than one. We all know that those who have passed are not standing around in the cemeteries -- at least, I hope not, but to me, it's especially touching to see bouquets on old graves. It means those individuals are still fondly remembered, even though we might not have known them personally.