MEMORIAL DAY 2015

 Mama passed away in October 1998 and was buried at the National Cemetery at Quantico, Virginia.  On a summer day Daddy and I went down to visit her and he got upset that there was no lush green grass over her grave or anywhere in her sector.  Mama is buried in the last section on the left if you drive in and do the loop around the cemetery.  We saw some men digging a grave not far from us and Daddy called them over and they called their supervisor who was in charge of the grounds.  He was a very nice respectful person who explained that irrigation had not yet been plumbed into this section so the growing of grass was subject to rainfall and God's will.  He told us he was also incharge of the grounds in a very old military cemetery in Alexandria and to my mind's eye I believe he was referencing Revolutionary War era.  He also explaned to me out of Daddy's earshot that unlike the "six feet under" you always think about burials there was actually only eighteen inches above you.  I'm glad Dad didn't hear that or that would have upset him, too.  The grounds keeper managed to satisfy Daddy and I was happy for that.  Robin and I visited Mama later that year and there was a beautiful patch of thick green grass over just her grave and the rest of the area looked the same as it did when I had visited with Dad.  I thought that was so remarkable that the groundskeeper had done that.   I always thought even though we never discussed it that Dad was upset because he knew he'd be joining Mom soon enough.  Daddy passed in February 2009 and was buried with Mama.  I always wished they had been buried in the cemetery on Main Street in Fairfax City where all of my relatives on Mom's side of the family are buried.  I feel better knowing that they aren't down there at Quantico all alone now.  Daddy's younger brother Lawrence (Uncle Boo) and Aunt Audrey are buried at Quantico now as is Mama's baby brother my Uncle Carroll Simpson and Mama's first cousin Jannelle and her husband Frank Pennington.  Daddy's sister my Aunt Annabelle and Uncle Bill Vredenburg are buried at the National Cemetery at Culpepper, Virginia.  Thank you to all my relatives who served this country in wartime and peacetime and to all the women who waited for them and loved them.  Memorial Day 2015.