Vacation '04 — Remembrance

Today was spent on the road making a few stops around my childhood.

My mother and I went to the cemetery this afternoon to visit my family's graves. We stopped on the way to pickup some flowers. I was glad to go because it has been years since I had a chance to visit this cemetery and now my grandmother has been laid to rest there as well.

My grandparents are there right next to one another, and my father is only about eight feet away with a plot next to him for my mother. A plot which is going to remain empty for several years yet.

Mom and I cleaned up the graves and left fresh flowers.

...

I had to take a short break there because I was starting to tear up while writing. I am not going to go any further into that part of the day for now. Maybe I'll come back to it...

Before I go on I want to tell a quick story of my first trip to this cemetery. It was when we were burying my grandfather and I was about eleven years old. Some of us kids started to wander around and look at the other stones. This was just a bunch of kids being bored while the grownups were serious and took care of whatever they were doing. At least that's what it was until I made a discovery which caused some distress.

Imagine you are an eleven year old in a cemetery, with your limited understanding of what is going on, and you find a gravestone with your name on it.

That was the day that I found out that I shared the same name as my great-grandfather. But I still remember that initial shock.

...

Let's get back to today...

We stopped in to visit my aunt (mentioned in earlier entries) on the way back. She was doing okay, but you could tell that her mind was slipping at times.

The next stop on the way back was Economy Falls. (Did I mention the town is named Economy? The name of the waterfall makes more sense if I mention that.) The area of the falls are beautiful. It helps that Dad and I used to go fishing there when I was a kid and I had only been there once since. Mom had also gone fishing there with Dad, but she hadn't been there since before I was born. It was good to see the area and remember Dad. Although the next stop held more memories of Dad for me.

The next stop was in Pleasant Hills where I have land that I inherited from Dad. At one time there was a cabin on the land. Dad used to spend a lot of time back there during the summer and during hunting season. I used to spend a lot of weekends back there with him as well.

If there is interest I may write about some of the times I spent with my father, but for now it is enough that you know that this area holds a lot of fond memories for me.

That was the second last stop on the trip today. The last one being at a truckstop where we ate supper.