Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Today

Today we buried my uncle, that is, my father's brother. This was my fourth time to have the honor of serving as a pallbearer, all four times for members of that family. After the funeral in Floresville, we traveled way out to Fairview Cemetery for the interment.

Fairview is a small country cemetery in the area of the old community of Saspamco. An odd name for a town, perhaps..it was named after the San Antonio Sewer Pipe Manufacturing Company, which used the red clay found in the area for manufacturing pipes. The town was occupied mostly by employees of the company, and way back when it had its own school.

There isn't much left now except for a few tiny churches and cemeteries. Although "enjoy" may not be the right word, I do enjoy, in a sense, visiting such old country cemeteries.

Today I stood over this very tombstone, contemplating thoughtlessly for a few minutes before we left.

5 comments:

  1. I am sorry for your family's loss.

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  2. I visited my maternal grandparents' graves back in October, where they're buried in Seaton, a little old Czech farming community outside of Temple. Supposedly Seaton is named because afte a heavy rain once, it was a "sea" of water and a "ton" of mud! I was up that way because my aunt (their youngest daughter) is dying of cancer, and I was pretty introspective, not very good company the next few days: a coworker noted I was "morose."

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  3. My condolences. I've had a few uncles go the last couple of years. A couple of days ago I found out another one has terminal cancer, so one more of my dad's brothers is going to be gone.
    It doesn't get any easier with experience, does it?

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  4. This reminds me of another sorrowful little grave in old New England, and the couplet thereon: "It is so soon that I am done,/ I wonder why I was begun."

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  5. Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

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