Background: My family and my wife's family are cemetery visitors. We have been and always will be, I think. Personally, I can't imagine doing anything else on Memorial Day besides visiting graves of loved ones.
For the last several years, and due to the fact that there are so many cemeteries for us to visit, we break it up.
If we are going to visit the graves of my mother's family, we usually try to do that on the Saturday before, but it's usually not a mass visit - turns out to be one or two of us is all.
Sunday is the day to visit my wife's relatives resting places. We meet at the Garland Cemetery where my wife's sister is buried. Then we travel to East Garland to decorate the graves of her father's grandpa and grandma.
After that, we travel to Bear River City where my wife's mother's dad and a brother are buried.
Then on to Honeyville where my wife's dad's biological father and his mother are buried, as well as his adopted father.
The last stop of the day is in Brigham City where my wife's mother's grandparents are buried.
This year we gathered at the home of a sister after the Box Elder Cemetery visits were done and had supper there. It was a great day.
Each year on the official holiday, my brothers and sisters gather in Newton to visit our dad's grave as well as his parent's and grandparent's graves.
My dad's mother came from a polygamist family, the patriarch of which was William F. Rigby. He had 7 wives and households full of children and grandchildren. Check the link for a small bio of his life.
A large part of his family is buried in the Newton, Utah Cemetery, and we can spend a lot of time walking from plot to plot remembering where each person fits into the overall picture.
I know we don't do a lot of recreational things on Memorial Day, but as I look back over the last several years I notice that Memorial weekend is right up there in my list of favorite times of the year.
So, enough background, let's get into the specific conversation:
Oh, one last note: My wife's family has a lot of graves to visit and they like to leave a flower on each one so they have gotten into the habit of using artificial flowers - the kind you would buy and then use in a larger arrangement - instead of buying the mums that proliferate at the stores each May, just to save money.
At the Garland Cemetery on Sunday just past, as we were beginning the trip across Box Elder County, my father-in-law said, "When we get to heaven, our relatives will be upset with us because all we have used is fake flowers on their graves". A moment later he continued, "Well, they'll be upset with all of you when you get up there because I won't be there, I'm going somewhere else".
At this point, my 11 year old son, ever compassionate, ever helpful, said, "OH! I know where YOU'RE going ......."
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