Rural Cemetery Scene / Going for the Gold

It was Monday morning, and my husband proposed a plan. We were still confused about what time it was, and slept poorly. But we were ready to take on our day. "What can I do to make my wife happy?" my husband asked, again. This is the question that sent us on a wonderful adventure last Monday, down at the Lower Trail, along the Little Juniata that still has me smiling a great big GRIN!

We had some town errands we had to handle. I had a CD that came due at the bank. We wanted to grab some groceries. I had prescriptions to refill and we planned to get our flu shots. But we wanted some sort of treat as well, and he (after looking at the deals online) proposed a Kentucky Fried Chicken lunch in town as our first stop, perhaps our first one this year.

We discovered that if you order on their website or in the app, you can get a $10, 4-piece meal that includes two mashed potatoes and gravy and two biscuits. (Actually, it was probably enough for TWO people.) As a freebie, they give you the chicken strips meal with fries, which was what my husband wanted. It sounded absolutely delightful. So I said Yes!

My husband suggested we might make a stop somewhere for a short walk on the way home, so I made sure I was wearing shoes I could walk around in. And then we hopped into the car and did all of those things: KFC, the bank, the pharmacy, flu shots, grocery shopping, what-not.

We were on our way home, and while it was 3:30, it really FELT like 4:30. As we drove on route 550, my husband said, "Let's stop at the cemetery," which is to say Gray's Cemetery, one of my all-time favorite side stops on my way to or from. 

You see, back when I was a workaday gal, with so many big responsibilities, part of how I coped and managed my stress was to build in tiny photo stops for myself in my day: 10 minutes in this cemetery or that, 15 minutes at the Arboretum, 5 minutes along Spring Creek. 

You'd be surprised how often just that 5 or 10 or 15 minutes SAVED ME, and helped give me strength to do the hard tasks we sometimes had to do. Solve six unsolveable problems before breakfast! That's the task of accessibility, and my hat's off to those who still do that work.

This is all to say that I have visited this little cemetery OFTEN in the 20 years I've lived in the house I bought us in Stormstown back in 2004. I have found so much peace and beauty here. It is one of the prettiest cemeteries I know of, anywhere. 

As a sidebar, my husband has asked that he would like us BOTH to be buried in this cemetery, in spite of the fact that my dad gave us two plots at St. John's Church, next to big sister Barb and near my parents. I shall have to think long and hard about that.

Anyway, back to my story and my pictures. It was late in the day, and the sun was dropping fast, as it does in November. And I was hoping for really great light to arrive. But it didn't, really. So I made the best of it. As one does.

My husband dropped me off along the fence row with the big yellow trees and parked our car by the little white gazebo you have seen often on these pages. He read his book while I traipsed along the fence, and the yellow trees, and headed into the oldest part of the graveyard.

The tree above is one of my favorites. In October, it is bright orange, and that is something to see, for sure! But its leaves have gone now and it is its winter self, craggy and bony against a November sky. I think of it as "the sweetheart tree"; as you can see, its roots are wrapped around two stones, hugging them tight. Somehow, that just slays me, every time. Trees, holding our beloved dead to their hearts.

In the center of my shot is a barn and there are more trees and grave stones here and there. I just like the shot. I make it every time I come here, whenever I have time to go all the way over to the old end of the graveyard.

I can't let this story go without giving you at least one photo of the glorious yellow tree row, which appears in the extras. My heart tells me these are Norway maples, the same kind of trees that used to line the tree row to the University president's house by the Arboretum. They cut those trees down a few years ago, much to my chagrin. I feel their loss like a hole in my SELF each November. 

For you see, ALL of those tree rows went to gold at this time of year. This WEEK, in fact. Typically the first and/or second week of November, they put on their best show of the year! I can no longer visit the Arboretum tree row since it's not there. But when I visit THIS one, I feel somehow mollified; I feel better; I've kept the faith.

I got all the way to the far end of the cemetery, and as I turned to come back, I took some shots into the sky. The clouds were hazing up the sun and yet it was managing to set things aglow dramatically. Suddenly, all of the tops of the tombstones were lit, and reflecting that light. All around me was a shining city of the dead, and it was so beautiful!

We were recapping our day later, and my husband said two things: first, that it was obviously a "happy wife Monday," again. Which is a concept that's sorta growing on me, LOL. And second, that I should have seen my own face when I opened up that big box of chicken at KFC! Ha!

I told him how much I loved this cemetery, and cemeteries in general. And how part of the enjoyment for me is witnessing the loving care that people take of their departed loved ones. I like to cruise cemeteries and see the pictures and the stories and the mementos, and speak their names. I got misty, as I said that I could just FEEL the love surrounding me, and them, when I walk here. "So . . . much . . . love," was the last thing I said.

And so here are two photos of one of my favorite places. It is in its glory right now. The tree row is shining with golds. The cemetery is neat and well taken care of. The tombstones are decorated with objects and flags and angels. They shine out like a city of light under the late-day sun.

In the oldest section, a craggy sweetheart tree is hugging two stones to its bosom. Up in the corner, in the pretty white gazebo, a man is quietly reading his book, putting in time, waiting on his wife, in a new tradition we call "happy Wife Monday." 

Welcome to Gray's Cemetery in early November.

I have two photos so let's have two songs. First is Bjarne, with Someone You Loved (it's the first two minutes of this clip). Second is Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt, with After the Gold Rush, from their 1999 album, Trio II.

More photos from this cemetery:
A bonus winter version of this shot.
A story about my friend Nancy (and the follow-up, in a different cemetery)