Family history

When my brother and I were little, we would spend two weeks with our maternal grandparents every summer. They would make the 5 1/2-hour trip to our parents' house, then we would ride back home with them. A couple of weeks later, our parents would drive down to pick us up.

I have some great memories of those summer trips.

Some of those memories are little things, like the fact that one of the cereals my brother and I liked had a coupon on the back of each box for a free small ice cream sundae from Dairy Queen, which was in walking distance from our grandparents' house. We spent the whole year collecting enough coupons so we could each have a sundae every other night for our whole trip.

Then there are some bigger things I remember, like the family history that I learned. Granny somehow became the keeper of the cemeteries. She made sure the headstones were clean and in tact. She also made sure everybody had season-appropriate flowers. My brother and I accompanied her on these cemetery trips when we were younger. I can tell you where almost all of my relatives on that side of the family are buried.

I didn't realize what a big deal that was until this year's reunion.

After Granny died, Mama and her brother took on the cemetery duties. Mama is a great shopper, so she finds good deals on flowers all the time. She buys the flowers and puts them together in arrangements. Then on her trips down that way (she usually goes down a few times a year), she makes rounds and replaces all the old flowers.

This past year, she and her brother were placing flowers at my great-grandparents' grave and some of the other family plots, and they noticed that the headstones were stained pretty badly. It's a pricey endeavor to clean headstones, so they decided to ask for donations at the reunion.

You would not believe how many people at the reunion had no idea that Granny had taken care of the graves all those years. And they had no idea that my Mama and uncle had taken over. Then I found out that most of the people at the reunion don't even know where the graves were.

I love good stories, and when I was a kid, that's how I saw our family history. Granny would tell me all about relatives (close and distant), and although I don't remember all of them, I do still remember a lot of the tales she told. I love knowing family history. So I couldn't imagine not knowing where my past lies.

As a matter of fact, I took my personal motto from my great-great-great-grandmother Margaret's grave stone. It says "She hath done what she could." It's from the book of Mark in the Bible. I just love what it says. "She hath done what she could." You can't ask anybody for more than that.

Anyway, I felt lucky when I realized how much I know about our family's past. It's something I'll be able to share with Biscuit when he gets older. And I can also take him to the cemeteries and show him names and dates and messages on gravestones.

Here are some before and after photos of my great-grandparents' grave. Mama and my uncle did a great job cleaning it.