My blogging has gotten way behind my reality. I'll get to "here & now" but it won't happen today.
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The past few years I have gotten interested in my genealogy. Finding my great-great-grandparents' resting places left a mark on me. We found the Besse family in Santa Cruz, Calif & the Milroys in Bellefontaine (pronounced "bell fountain"), Ohio.
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| Samuel H and Martha (Boynton) Besse, Santa Cruz California |
It sounds odd, but it wasn't until I actually saw the grave markers that I felt that I actually had people back then. It was no longer abstract.
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| Robert and Catherine (Boyd) Milroy, Bellefontaine Ohio |
I've never been really concerned about what to do with my remains after I run out of time on this earth. The last few relatives I'd dealt with had their ashes scattered and that seemed good enough.
Then I thought about how I felt after finding the marker for my great-great-grandparents who passed in 1883... that marker took them from being an abstract thought to actual people in my past. If my ashes were scattered in the Pacific ocean no one would be able to have the revelation I did 133 years later.
Things to think about...
We are at that age when we have to start thinking about things of this nature.
ReplyDeleteI never had children so I do not think anyone is going to come looking for my grave with that said I still do not want to be cremated.
When my father passed I decided to purchase my plot. Need to start thinking about purchasing a pre-paid burial plan.
I have relatives who were cremated and are in a couple of different columbariums in the San Francisco bay area. Their names are on the plaques.
DeleteI had the same feeling when I found the graves of my kin in Kentucky. Though I had been away from Kentucky for fifty years, and had no living kin there any longer, it felt like I had roots - a part of me belonged.
ReplyDeleteBut I'd like a viking send off at a motorcycle rally if I had my way.
the Ol'Buzzard
Finding my past thru grave stones did allow me to feel ... feel my roots? Feel "my" past.
DeleteMy plan was to be cremated and ashes divided into six parts. I would leave a note saying where the ashes of each part were to be spread. One stipulation would be each of my kids must be there for the spreading. The places would be all over the country. I would leave enough money for the travel expenses. It would be my sneaky way of providing six family vacations after I would be gone. But crap, now you've made me think about a headstone and grave. Good job, Rob. (just kidding)
ReplyDeleteSplit the ashes into 7 parts, do what you were going to do with the 6 (vacations for the kids) and put the last one in a urn behind an engraved plaque or under a head stone?
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