Digging In and Digging Up

I try to post something on Audrey's Ambition at least once a week, usually on Friday. Yesterday's post, written by my grandmother, was about her lifelong interest in cemeteries. I've read that essay several times before, but somehow, in transcribing it yesterday, I became determined to locate the small Missouri cemetery where her grandfather was buried. I've looked for it previously, but I finally found it yesterday as a relatively new entry at findagrave.com.

Genealogy is a bit like I'd imagine panning for gold to be, in that the discovery of one little nugget sets off a big burst of energy and a flurry of activity, just in case that one nugget signifies a brand new vein to be mined. After a few small successes yesterday, I was back at it early this morning, digging--and frequently finding--photos of ancestors' graves.

In the case of Audrey's grandfather's gravestone, his original stone was evidently replaced after his wife died twenty years later. She was buried next to him, and the new grave marker had her name as well as his on it, along with the dates of their births and deaths. This would seem unremarkable to most people, but seeing it struck me funny, because my first thought was that Audrey's grandmother must still be rolling around in there. She was a spiritualist and, according to another story Audrey wrote, was convinced that he was haunting her in the years after his death. I wonder if she expected her final resting place to be right next to his.

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Since I've spent the better part of the last two days poking around in online graveyards, I picked a Saturday Song Selection to fit that theme. This is a rather nice one:

The song is "Dig Two Graves" by Randy Travis.

Thanks to Ralphy Boy for posting it on YouTube.

Click here to read the lyrics.