Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow at Our Family Cemetery

Yesterday, I thought a lot about long ago yesterdays, years past, people who are no longer with us, and the promise of tomorrow. The weather smiled on Decoration Day at our cemetery, a cemetery that six generations of my family have honored through more than a hundred years.

The weather was perfect–so chilly yesterday morning that I wore a jacket, so warm in the afternoon that a jacket wasn’t needed. After all the rains and floods, the Illinois River and Barron Fork Creek were muddy and rolling, much larger than usual and the flood was more than a week ago! Even the little creek that runs behind the cemetery was up.

As my family and I walked among the gravestones, I explained about the lives of some of the people who lay there. Compared to the many resting places, I know only a few: the man who fought in the Confederacy, the woman who was born before the Revolutionary War and who probably came to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears, my great-great grandparents, great-grandparents, grandparents and parents, so many I had known and loved and many I had not known but love anyway.

The ancient cedars nodded their heads as we walked beneath them. Wildflowers grew at our feet and the sunlight blessed us all.

my brothers and me

The best part of the whole day was coming back to my parents home for lunch. Family from Minnesota, Tulsa, Tahlequah, and Arkansas gathered in for fried chicken, watermelon, peach cobbler and strawberry shortcake. Of course, lawn chairs were out and favorite stories were handed around. And then came picture-taking. We had to capture the moment because who knew when this group of family and friends would meet here again?

All in all, it was a perfect day–a day when a lot of yesterdays joined today. It was a day to remember and a day that gives me hope for tomorrow.

(Pictures are by Michelle Day Albrecht)