My Gramma's spirit carried me through many dark days

I was only too proud to carry her to her final resting place beside my mother and grandpa.

As poor as this family is with strong men who live long enough to serve their responsibilities, it was gratifying that at least six men could be found on this day of Gram's final journey. One son-in-law, one grandson-in-law, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. All of us crying.

She was light as a feather.

Ninety-five years of glorious life ... she buried two husbands and half of her children, crimes against nature which nonetheless never daunted her spirit. If not for Gram's insistence that her first-born deserved to lie next to her adoring daddy, my mother would have been lost forever in the wind and sands of the godforsaken Nevada desert. Mom preceded and waited patiently beside her father for twenty-three years to rejoin her own mother. Now I have at least one anchor point in my life where I know I shall always find the core of those I loved: Woodvale Cemetery, 7535 Engle Road, Cleveland, Ohio

Last year on a visit I asked Gram why she was so fond of life on a farm. She sparked up and exclaimed "I was a city girl! I never wanted to live on a farm ... it was your grandpa who wanted to live in the country!"

At her memorial service I said my last goodbye to Gram, and asked her quietly to come with my mom to Virginia to see the homestead and farmhouse I am restoring with Patti in homage to the life they both had lived.

I think next year I will get the chickens.