Put to Rest and At Rest

On Saturday, Mom, Linda and I went to Aunt Helen's graveside service at Blakeley Cemetery near Madison. Her daughter-in-law, Pat, along with her three grandchildren were there from Texas. There were also a few people from the Madison area who had some connection with Pat from the past.




It was a beautiful day to be out in the country, and a lovely place to be put to rest, I think.

These are the people we are related to. I've never met any except Pat, the one in red. It was uncanny how much the grandson, Mark, looked like his grandfather, Buddy.

After dropping Linda at home, Mom and I went on to visit those previously "at rest." This is the 7th year that I've taken Mom on this round. At first I derided her foolish sentimentality. But......I find that each year it becomes a more meaningful ritual to me. I stand at the headstones for Alvin Rickets Byerly who was born in 1842, and Grandma Denny who died in 1929, and Daddy who has been gone for 20 years, and Judy who died 50 years ago, and look at the place where I will someday be.........And I feel the continuity of all those lives with mine and with my daughters' lives and their children's lives.

Moving back here was such a good decision.