They make really good birding habitat; with their trees, grass, and quiet. I try to be respectful. I don’t walk through burial ceremonies, and I give a wide berth to anyone who is visiting a lost loved one.
Walking through Roselawn Cemetery in McAllen the other day, I noticed side-by-side graves with a single headstone. That’s not uncommon; to get buried side-by-side. Each name had a birth date. One had a date of death, but the other didn’t. That’s not uncommon either. It just hasn’t all played out yet. Except that in this circumstance, both the birth dates were in the 1800s. I don’t think that other date is ever going to get filled in. That’s sad, but sometimes plans change.
That got me thinking about Dad’s grave. I watch people visiting grave sites, but that doesn’t really resonate with me; visiting the place where a body is buried. I think about Dad, but I don’t go back to Long Beach to visit his gravesite. I don’t imagine there is a soul lying there in the ground waiting for someone to come visit. I don’t suppose anyone visits Dad’ gravesite anymore. I don’t recall that there was a tombstone with both names on it, waiting for Mom to show up, but back in 1968, I’ll bet the expectation was that they would eventually be buried together.
But that didn’t happen. Mom went on for almost another 25 years and lived a whole new life. When she died in 1992, we set her ashes free in the Colorado High Country in accordance with her wishes. She didn’t want to be buried in the ground next to anyone. A pebble here makes a ripple there, so I guess she’s everywhere by now, but she’s not in the ground next to Dad. Sometimes plans just change.
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