GRAVE MATTERS

After conversations with various cousins at Mum's party, my sisters and I went to Dorset to find my grandparents' graves and leave some of the flowers that Mum was given for her birthday. My grandmother's grave in Weymouth was a bit neglected and the stone had sunk and tipped over a little. We'd taken a few tools so between the five of us we straightened it and cleaned it (extra). After a terrible family tragedy at Christmas 1976, when an aunt, her husband, daughter-in-law and grandson were all killed by a drunk driver, their ashes were buried in my grandmother's grave, though we were sad to see there's nothing to mark their presence.

Afterwards we drove to Wool, where my grandfather is buried in the military section of the churchyard, cleaned his stone and left more flowers.