We Went to the Cemetary Yesterday

On the good side it was beautiful. It always is but particularly so around Memorial day. There are over 100 years worth of my family members buried out there. It has always been this little cemetery out in the middle of Farm country. The Man who originally donated the land placed in his will that the cemetery was always to be given land when they needed it and that that stipulation was to go with any contract for the land in perpetuity. For 100 hundred years that stipulation has been met.

Now though they have built an airport not too far from there and the land in that area is being chopped up sold for a million dollars an acre. I made the mistake of turning left instead of right a few months back and saw that the land a short ways in that direction was already turned into lots. Yesterday as we drove to the cemetery I noticed that the farm land just before the cross roads to the cemetery has started to have dirt work done to it and the roads have already been cut.

I know that it is foolishness on my part. I know that my family isn't really there in that cemetery; it's just what's left of the clay vessels that they lived in. On the other hand, it is the only place that I have to go and honor the lives of those people. We would go and I would tell my children about the people those markers represented.

"Here in this area, in an unmarked grave, are the graves of your third Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother. He fought in the civil war with a battalion out of Illinois. He was a sharp shooter. They were used then to range in the cannons." "These are the graves of your Great-Grandmothers parents. They moved here from Nebraska; they lived in a soddy out there. Your seconded Great-Grandmother would cut patterns in the dirt floor to make is pretty and she actually used to sweep it. One time a fire came through on the prairie and your second Great-Grandfather, who was plowing at the time, when he saw the smoke unhooked the plow, jumped on the back of the horse and rode for all he was worth toward the house. When he got there his wife was waiting with the door open and he just rode on in. Because the house was mad out of dirt and partially underground they were able to ride the fire out inside the house. It went right over the top of them and they were OK. But it had been so fast that it actually singed you Grandfathers hair as he was riding in." And on and on for six generations of stories about their heritage.

For over 100 years it has been a peaceful place where that could be accomplished. Now it's about to be surrounded by housing developments. My husband doesn't understand my problem. He's a practical man who was born and raised in Detroit, MI. The time that he has spent here has been the first time he has done more than just drive through the country one his way to another city or Military Post. His reply is that "It's the way of the world. All cities where country sometime." But my people where all farm people. They chose to be buried where they were because it was farming country. I don't think they would want to be surrounded by houses.

I plan to be buried there. We already have plots next to my son and close to where my parents will be buried. I don't want to see that happen. But the truth is that that is what is coming. worse yet, we will probably be the last generation laid there. With a worth of a million dollars an acre no one will want to give the cemetery land. They will find a way to legally avoid an old mans dieing wish made over 100 years ago. The cemetery is just a little country cemetery, they family members take care of the land and virtually give away the plots. They can't afford to spend that much an acre for more land. So the remaining sites will be filled, then in another generation families will stop coming and the people living around the cemetery will petition to "do something about that eye sore." The grave markers will be pulled down and turned into a tasteful monument and the area will be turned into a park.

While I know that none of my family is actually there; that they don't know what is going on. Still I don't think that was what they expected when they decided that that is where they wanted to be layed. It breaks my heart.