The Cemetery

Some would say that my time spent in cemeteries is a bit odd. And I suppose, it is a bit but I do have an explanation.  My grandparents lived across from one of the oldest cemeteries in the Midwest, Oakland Cemetery. It is really a beautiful place to be with its massive oak trees and ornate gravestones. As a kid we spent time in the cemetery taking walks, the empty rolling hills made for a wonderful place to crunch the big fall leaves under your feet as you took an after-dinner stroll with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Oakland Cemetery on one side runs along Jackson street where I walked many of times with my grandparents to get to their window shop.  This is where our boy got his name in order to honor my grandpa (Otto wasn't a desirable child's name).

It was in this cemetery, that I learned to do gravestone rubbings -- you take a blank sheet of white paper and the side of a crayon and rub images from gravestones onto paper.  I once took a date to the cemetery to this very thing.  It worked for this particular date but others may have been frightened of me after a date like this. 

Last night, I took both of the kiddos with me and my mom to plant flowers on my grandparents gravestone, in another local cemetery.  I thought it was a going to be a bit of a challenge to explain to the kids what we were doing.  But Jackson actually took to it right away and said in a very matter-of-fact  no-big-deal way, "There are dead people under there." Addie just liked the open space to run and the beautiful detailing on many of the gravestones.

But we did "introduce" them to grandma and grandpa and share a few stories.  They helped a bit to clean up the stone and hand the geraniums off to my mom to plant and then took turns watering.  So while I know this is strange to some; we had a very nice evening in the cemetery!