As soon as early settlers had built a place to live, they wanted two things–a school for their children and a cemetery to bury their loved ones.
Since I was seven years old, I have considered the Laona Township Cemetery mine. In the 1940s, my parents lost two baby boys at birth and buried them there. At that time, no one took care of the grounds. I remember my parents mowing the grass on those lots and the adjoining ones where Mom’s parents were interred. Several times a month during the growing season, Dad loaded our reel-type, push lawn mower into the trunk of our 1936, black, Chevy sedan and drove from our farm east of Harrison on Highway 75 to the graveyard north of Durand on Yale Bridge Road. He parked along the black-top in front of the burial grounds and carried the lawn mower up the steep bank and through the gate that provided an opening in the iron fence along the area’s south side. While they worked, I roamed around looking at the headstones. Some were large monuments. Others were old with worn inscriptions hard to read. A few were people I had known.
Mom’s Uncle George was nearby. His funeral had been my introduction to the ritual although my parents and my cousins tried to talk me out of attending. I was an adamant, four-year-old because I loved the old man. He had been a widower and his grown son, ‘Spud’, still lived with him on their farm. Every week, the two men were invited to our house for Sunday dinner.
In 1976, Dad died of a heart attack and was buried alongside his sons. Twenty-seven years later, Mom joined them.
When it came time to acquire a burial plot for Linda, our 48-year-old daughter who was dying of breast cancer, I knew I wanted her by her grandparents. When we bought a marker for Linda’s grave, we also bought a joint-one for ours in the same lot.
I am used to the tradition following the death of a family member. A few days after someone passes away, an evening visitation is held at the funeral home with a final viewing of the body in its casket and allowing people to share condolences with the survivors. The following day there is a religious service with burial in a near-by cemetery. Friends and relatives then gather together and food is served.
People tracing their ancestry visit cemeteries looking for departed relatives. Every year before Memorial Day, members of our local Legion place a small U.S. flag on the grave of each veteran buried in area cemeteries.
Will the future render cemeteries obsolete? Society is changing the way it handles a death in the family. Some are opting for cremation and scattering the ashes in a beloved place. At a convenient time, friends and relatives gather in a public place to celebrate the deceased life.
Have you thought about your final wishes?