Memorial Day 2012

Ruth (Grandma Brown’s sister), and Burt Hill have become an unplanned part of our Memorial Day traditions. Many of Steve’s relative graves are around his. For the past two years we have happened upon Ruth and Burt at the cemetery.

Burt and Ruth couldn’t have been more kind. They both talked to each one of my children, lent us their clippers to trim the grass around the grave-site, and took some family pictures for us. As they were leaving Burt yelled out his car window, going to I-Hop and I am buying. We have three extra seats in our car.

How sweet, but we weren’t quite finished visiting the grave. When we arrived at the grave, we noticed that the headstone was dirty, and the grave needed to be cleaned up a bit. Fortunately, I had some wet-wipes in my car that did a fine job. We cleaned the grave, told funny stories of Steve (there are plenty), played Billy Joel songs (thanks to Pandora), took pictures, and placed flowers with a poem and messages from our family at the foot of the headstone. Meg had a cute little red binky that she left.

The kids were starving after, so we went to Hires for lunch. They seated us at a table for 10. The chair across from me was empty. I kept it together even though my thoughts were centered on the empty chair. I miss Steve so much!

When we got home the boys went to the storage unit and retrieve all of my baby gear. I was amazed at how much I have kept. Then again, it has only been 9 years sine I had my last baby.

We had a barbeque at Grandma and Grandpa Brown’s later that afternoon, and Ben had a baseball game in the evening. A bit of an emotional day, but it was nice to be surrounded by my family.

Family, flowers, and bink.

The poem we left with messages written on the back.

My favorite crew!