Memorial Day

If Memorial Day were a competitive sport, here are my stats.

I saw the graves of:

2 grandparents

8 great grandparents

12 great great grandparents

12 great great great grandparents

8-9 great great great great grandparents (I carried around a paper all day with the info--color coded--and now I can't find it)

There should have been 10 great greats, but Neil Livingston Gardner Jr. and Alfreda Blanche Huffaker proved illusive.  We had found their headstones previously, but couldn't find them again.

We'll get them next year.

I saw alive people also.  I foolishly didn't take a picture and so far have not been able to obtain anyone else's. (I even went to Facebook and I dislike going to Facebook!)

I love Memorial Day because it reminds me of my grandma and the tradition of going to cemeteries that mattered so much to her.  It also reminds me of my place in the world.

You can't visit all those graves in one day and not feel connected and rooted.  I love being there with my mom and sisters especially because we all hold different facets of the stories and relationships in our heads and we retell them to each other to remember.

I love calling my children over and saying, "Now listen to this story."

I love turning our hearts to our fathers (and mothers).