 Catlettsburg, Kentucky Everyone needs someone in their life who wholeheartedly believes in them, looks forward to their visits no matter if unexpected, and ignores their faults. Thinking about it, I'd say a person would be lucky to have just a few folks like that during an entire lifetime. In the cemetery above lies some who thought of me that way. In today's picture, which I almost titled 'It pays to be prepared', my maternal grandfather is buried behind the tree and up to the left. You can interpret the title in many ways depending on your lifestyle, either religously, monetarily, or you can take it quite literally if you are the type who must have everything ready just in case. My grandfather was a little bit of all of that, especially the being-prepared bit. I come from a long line of people-who-are-ready-just-in-case. My grandfather lived a very long life in Kentucky, he met and married his wife in the mountains but moved to our area for a job. He always considered the mountains to be home, so it was no surprise that upon his death his wallet was discovered to have multiple instructions for his funeral depending on where his death occurred. It read 'If I die up home....' and then following those instructions were a second set that started with 'If I die down here....'. The significance of this would be lost to a reader unless it was known that 'up home' hadn't really been home for over 60 years. The cemetery in my picture isn't the family cemetery. We did once have a family cemetery that was started sometime after David Jesse Salyer came from Virginia around 1840. I remember it as being on top of a knoll that overlooked the surrounding land that was still being farmed by relatives. Sadly, that cemetery and the homes of the relatives were forcibly sacrificed to be made into THIS (taken near Uncle Fonzo's front yard, I do believe). As it turns out, the cemetery was moved and the homes torn down only to make room for an exhibit to show the lake visitors how mountain people used to live. Pretty ironic, right? (but still a neat place to visit) Which brings me to my last story. During his retirement, my grandfather sat on the side porch almost everyday. One day, I dropped by to visit and looked at the evergreen tree that was up behind the house (either a cedar or a spruce, I forget). The whole top of the tree had been chopped out. I asked, 'what happened to your tree...' but I didn't really get much of an answer. I noticed a hint of embarrassment. Later, I was to hear the rest of the story from my aunt. The old superstition is that you will die when your cedar tree gets tall enough to shade your grave. He was a smart guy, but I suppose he was like me and my lottery tickets. Not likely to happen, but why take the chance? Hope it warms up some, but the clouds were beautiful this evening. Comment (4) | Permalink |
4x6photo.com | Cemetery monument and tree | 27 October, 2005
