CEMENTERY STORY # 2

Let's continue this long walk because I have not finished my unusual stories!

About the same time we were replacing headstones, I received a call from a member of the cemetery committee.  He was creating a new plat for the cemetery because the former pastor had destroyed the old one.  This was very disturbing because the graves in that cemetery had dates as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries!  He said he needed to talk to me because he wanted to know why my first cousin's body was being exhumed after being buried one year!

I have some crazy cousins on my maternal relative tree!  I had no idea what he was talking about and again I consulted the person in our sibling branch who has an excellent memory at the age of eighty-six.  Unfortunately she had no idea what was happening but reassured me she would find the answer.

After many phone calls to cousins of the dead, but exhumed, cousin, she was able to learn a possible , amazingly stupid reason for this unusual situation.  The dead, but exhumed, cousin had been married twice and had fathered a daughter in each marriage.  The elder daughter was twenty years older than the younger daughter; however, the younger daughter was still living with her father at the time of his sudden death and had made all the decisions regarding the funeral.

Now.....stay with me on this......it gets better....................

The older daughter had been grieving for one year because of two very important issues surrounding her father's death.
1.  He was not buried in the outfit she wanted
2/  His hair was not combed the way she liked

The funeral home tried to appease her anxieties and even offered to forgive any debts incurred as a result of the funeral expenses.  She would agree to nothing but to have him exhumed and redressed!

Now this is the good part......................................

She had him redressed the way he always dressed, in a pair of shorts and a tank top.!   I suppose he died in that attire because from what I remember as the cause of his death was this:  He pulled through the drive-through of his local beer joint for his week-end supply of beer.  He was, of course wearing the beloved attire of a pair of shorts and a tank top.  When the clerk handed him the beer, he found him slumped over the steering wheel of his truck, dead from an apparent heart attack!

So the elder daughter buried him again, and this time he was apparently dressed the way she wanted to remember him. My memory of my cousin tells me that he would have been amused with all this foolishness.  Poor guy continues his eternal journey in a pair of shorts and a tank top with God only knows what type of hair style.  Can't help but wonder if she placed a carton of beer in the casket!

Oh, the pondering of it all.............................................see you next time

SOME TRUE CEMETERY STORIES # 1

Today is a good day for a long walk together.  I have several rather humorous stories that I would love to share with you.  Good that this June 12 weather is unseasonably cool.  Looks like we may be out for a while.

So....here is how my story began.  My husband's older brother died in 2016 and a few months after that, as co-executer of his will, he began to order the footstone for his grave in the large family plot. I decided this might be a good time to discuss the fact that my sister and I had been concerned for over thirty years that we had a relative buried in a church cemetery whose grave had never been marked by a headstone.  This was something that had bothered my elder sister for many years and I finally told her I would make sure his grave would be marked.  This seemed like a great opportunity since my husband would be having one made for his brother, I could have one made for my first cousin's long-deceased husband.  My husband was in compliance with my decision and said he would help.

Well, what appeared to be a simple request quickly became one that required a bit of detective work on my part mainly because neither my sister nor I knew our cousin's husband's full name.  We only knew him as "Whitey". I guess this does require some explanation on our part.  We didn't really know him very well, but our cousin did marry him and had a daughter by him.  She, in turn, when grown, married and had a son.  Regardless of our cousin's disregard for her husband, we wanted future generations to know he had existed and where his remains were.  She did place him in her father's family plot alongside both her deceased parents.

I began by calling my cousin so I might have the full name of her deceased husband, the name of the funeral home in Charlotte, the date and time of his death.  After I had collected all this information, I gave it to my husband and he placed the order at the same time he ordered the footstone for his brother.  "Whitey's" footstone would be his headstone, and I would incur the full cost of $300.00.

That being done, I decided to inspect the other graves where other members of the same family were buried.  I knew her parents had buried an infant daughter there, but could not find the headstone.  My memory was that the baby had a funeral and there was a headstone there at one time.  I could not find one at all.  I also knew that another infant daughter born early as stillborn was buried there but no evidence existed to show for her.

After consulting my sister, we decided the first infant had died in the early fifties....we thought around 1953.  With this information, I ordered a small headstone for the first child that died in 1953.  We made arrangements for this to be delivered the same day ad the one for Whitey.

As planned, the monument people arrived and began work on the new grave markers.  As one of the men was digging a hole for the infant's headstone, he hit something very hard with the shovel.  Further investigation revealed a monument that had sunk beneath the level of the ground.  He managed to unearth it and there was the headstone of the infant who died in 1953.  Oh dear, now what to do with the new one that I ordered?!  WELL, we remedied that too.....we had them to change the 3 to an 8 for the second infant and place it at the foot.  Unfortunately, we do not have the exact date.....just the one we guessed........but still feel better that it is at least marked.

We made a note of several repairs, adjustments and cleanings that needed to be done another time.....
More about those events later.......................................