2003-05-27-3:17 p.m.

Memorial Day

We took the kids to a cemetery yesterday. The plan was to find graves of men who had died in wars.

We found several. Most of them were in the World War I, though. We must have gone to an older cemetery. There were a lot from the Civil War, too.

The kids knew not to trample around on the graves so we were all being creative trying to find ways to get around without "stepping on the dead people." Some sections had concrete curbs around them and we could balance on those looking at the dates and names. Lots of them were hard to see because the tombstones were so black with age. We decided to bring paper and crayons next time so we could rub the words to see what they say.

The thing that struck me most was that this cemetery was so uncared for. The flags we saw were from years past. Some were even broken. Disrespecting the flag is one of my pet peeves and I almost gathered up the old faded ones and then decided I shouldn't unless I was going to replace them. Next year I would like to bring new flags to put on all the war guys' graves. I think the kids would really like that.

One section was very well cared for. Every grave had flowers and there were lilies planted at the foot of each one. I made up my mind that when there is a section of a graveyard that has my family members in it I want it to look like that. I don't want people coming to the cemetery and thinking, wow, look at this, nobody cares.

There is one grave that is my favorite. It is a homemade stone that lies flat in the grass. It's not engraved, but it looks like someone took a nail and wrote in the wet cement. I could just imagine someone who had no money, but loved this sixteen year old girl and carefully poured a rectangle of cement and wrote in it with a nail when it was almost dry. Maybe he didn't like how it looked the first time he wrote it and he wiped it with a wet cloth and tried again. It says: Annie Ivy, Aged 16 years.

Annie Ivy. I love that name. I wonder what her story is.

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