Cemeteries

I was out walking today, and stumbled across a 200 year old cemetery.  It was an interesting trip through history. 

I began in the new section, with people from this century.  I went a little farther back and found people from the last century, and then I began looking closer at the tombstones.

The tombstones from more than 50 years ago have a lot of information on them. 

I found veterans from WWII, WWI, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the War of Mexico, the war of 1812, and the Union Army.

I found the graves of babies who left this earth entirely too early, with life dates marked in days, not years.

I found young men who had died in accidents at the old flour mill, leaving behind wives who were buried decades after they passed away. 

I found the graves of young women who died at the age of 19 or 20, while giving birth.

It all left me wondering about the nature of things.

The veteran's graves were all neatly cleaned, and adorned with U.S. Flags.

Some person had recently come through and planted pinwheels on the graves of all the small children.  Anyone who had passed away under ten years of age had a brightly colored pinwheel marking their grave.  Many of the graves had fresh flowers.  Several had brightly colored Easter Eggs dangling from "trees" (large sticks) that had been weighted down with rocks and placed by the headstones.

I wondered about the wives who lost husbands when they were 24 or 25 years old.  I can only assume they had children, and struggled to live in a world where women could not work to support themselves.  What did they do to survive?  How did they feed their families and keep a roof over their heads?  It made me appreciate the efforts our sisters went through in the women's liberation movement of the 1970's, fighting for ALL women to have the ability to work in a job outside of the home, after marriage, and at a living wage. 

I wondered what kind of grief some person has that they would go through a graveyard and plant pinwheels on the graves of little children.  I hope it brings them comfort.  I hope they find the peace they so richly deserve.

It made me so thankful for the life I live today.  For the freedoms our service men and women have fought for both here and abroad.  For the sleepless nights they have endured, so that I can sleep soundly in my own bed and watch my children grow and thrive.

It made me thankful for medical advances over the last century, that has tamed fearsome diseases that would strike fear into the hearts of parents everywhere, and take the lives of young children well before their time.  It made me especially grateful that childbirth, which can be a life or death situation,  is now a relatively routine procedure.

I left the cemetery feeling strangely contented.  I realized how much I had to be thankful for.  How many things the people who have come before us have done, and how far we have come over the last 200 years.