I know I wouldn't have forgotten it. I suspect they won't either.
My 11-year old triplets spent 2014 Memorial Day putting flowers on the graves of their ancestors. I tend to think it will make for a memorable Memorial Day. I hope it was.
We visited five cemeteries. I had a list of 11, knowing that five was a good compromise to reach with my preteens. Five it was.
We placed tulips. I'm not sure if there is a "right" flower, but it seems alright.
It was the graves we visited that's the memorable part though.
Union Cemetery was the first stop. Col Elmer and Mary (Blandford) Armstrong were their second great grandparents on their Dad's side. I remember Elmer. The lion-shaped drinking fountain at his retirement home was among my earliest memories. Elmer served in the Army, including service at the Phillipines, WW I, and WW II.
In 1975, I stood at the place they stood where we buried my great grandmother, Sallie (Bernard) Naylor. She was buried with my great grandfather Elmer Naylor. She was born a Quaker, but sent two boys to WW II.
The rest of the day was on their Mom's side, visiting ancestors of five generations in the Columbus area.
Their maternal aunt and uncle, infants Edith and Charles Harper, are buried at Union Cemetery too. You can see the hospital my kids were born in from the cemetery.
Gilbert Walton, a War of 1812 vet, has a memorial at Green Lawn Cemetery. The triplets' 6th great grandfather has a gravestone here for his 1839 death. The Cemetery didn't open until the 1840's, though, and Green Lawn has absolutely no record of his interment. Nonetheless, this patriot is named on the same stone with his wife, Mary (Rapshire) Walton.
The same plot has the kids' fifth great grandparents, Eliza (Walton) and Jacob Brink. There are numerous cousins in this massive Green Lawn plot too.
In the vets area is buried James Harper and not far from there is his wife, Jennie (Lane) Harper's burial plot. The Triplets' third great grandparents died before their maternal grandmother was born.
Down the street at Salem Cemetery is where Rachel (Marsh) Harper, their fifth great grandmother, is buried. Married in Ohio in 1816, Rachel is the kids' provable link to First Families of Ohio status on their Mom's side.
Lastly, the day saw Forest Grove, a cemetery south of Plain City, Ohio. Though without stones, great great grandparents William and Louise (Daniels) Harper are believed to be buried next to their daughter, Hazel. They found someone had already placed flowers at their great grand aunt Helen Harper's gravestone two sections over.
After a stop at New California where their great grandfather, Orville Harper, was born in 1896, and where a veterans memorial stands for the Jerome Township vets it was time to head home and put a memorable Memorial Day to rest.
