After leaving Florida we headed up north to Arkansas where Joel spent some of his growing up years. Up off of I-40 in the northwest part of the state is the town of Russellville where Joel was born, and about 20 miles south of there is the little town of Ola where his dad grew up and both of his parents and older brother are now buried. We went up to see the cemetery and found that most of the graves were overtaken with moss and time.
We hadn't come prepared with anything to clean them up, but Joel found what he could at hand (a trusty bit of wood) and worked on them for almost an hour.
When it was all said and done he had made tons of progress, but they were still black with moss he couldn't get to budge.
To add to the fun, it was pouring down rain and I got soaked! So you may ask yourself, "wasn't she smart enough to get out of the rain?" Unfortunately the entire cemetery seemed to be one giant ant hill- the kind of ants that bite. About the time we realized what we were dealing with, Seth started crying and hitting at his legs. I took him to the truck and stripped him down and shook out his clothes, all while I was getting poured on and yes, (insert self-sacrificing/noble sigh here) getting bitten myself.
The next day we returned, this time with the proper tools, and after about half an hour Joel had the stones cleaned up beautifully!
Joel's mom (this stone was already in great shape)
Joel's dad (he got this one so clean you couldn't hardly read the lettering)
Joel's brother Jim
And the line-up of the family plot.
2 comments:
what a great mom you are indeed! I'm happy joel got the chance to go back and get them all cleaned up. What a good boy he is!
You brought tears to my eyes knowing that Joel got to return to some of his roots, but most importantly was able to visit his father, mother and brother's graves and with love clean them up. And you support him with your love. I'm sorry about the ants. Hope you are all OK. Thanks for sharing with us.
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