Jewells of Thought

Growing up in my family we got together and celebrated this holiday in true form. We also had three birthdays to add to this celebration most years. My parents birthdays and my Uncle Mike were usually together. Then Papaw Freddy would take us to the cemeteries we needed to see and know about who was where. It was very important to him for us to do this annually.

Grandpa has now been gone for nearly 19 years we don’t do our yearly caravan anymore. Too many holes and members in different locations for too long. However, a few of us still put out our flowers not to nearly as many of the graves we should because it is expensive, but we remember them we still take the time to go to the cemeteries and look at the stones.

My goodness I still remember our caravans. We would have at least 3 to 4 cars at whatever cemetery we were in and all of us more than 20 of us. Grandpa telling us stories and my uncles also adding to them. It was a sight to behold, it was iconic and something I have never forgotten from my youth. This is Hickory Cemetery where we have a good chunk of family represented. Unfortunately our stones look old and are hard to distinguish the markings only from our knowledge of where they are do we know them by heart. Like my great Uncle Ralph who died at 10 years of age. Grandma Mattie’s stone is looking rough too Grandma’s Mom and Ralph’s Mom. Sometimes these people I never met are so real to me because of my Grandpa Freddy.

I really miss him and his ways of keeping our family so close together we were close-knit because of his earnest and willing heart plus pure determination to fight for his family at all costs.