Lilacs and Peonies

When I was a kid my grandma and I would go to the cemeteries every Memorial Day. She would begin worrying in early May if the lilacs and the peonies would be blooming. We would cut giant bunches of flowers; load them in her old car along with glass canning jars and a small shovel. Off we would go, first to the Star City cemetery. It was my job to dig a small hole, place the canning jar in the hole, pump water from the well and carry it to the gravesite and fill the jar and place the flowers in the jar. Also I was to pull any weeds that grew up around the headstone. All the time I was doing that my grandma was talking with other people who were also placing flowers on the graves of their loved ones. It was a busy bustling place. My grandfather was buried there. (My grandma now rests beside him) He died 3 years before I was born. But my grandma always told me how much he would have loved me. After several hours we went on to another cemetery. My grandma would visit with others and that cemetery even had benches for folks to sit and chat. I wish I had listened closer to her stories. She was the one person in my childhood who was always kind to me. To this day come spring time I hope the lilacs and peonies are ready for Memorial Day. Today   it dawned on me... we are all just passing through this physical life. I know I know.. I am slow to catch on. We will all die and turn to dust, sooner or later. We can fight it but we can’t change it. One day our bones will lay forgotten, and all the things we worked so hard for will be laying in some landfill. All of our things will be lost and forgotten, this made me question what will I leave my children and grandchildren and some day great grand children? I hope I leave a legacy of fighting for what I believe in. I hope I am leaving some thing real something worthy and not just stuff. These days, I can't physically visit those cemeteries any longer, but I can still recall all those stories and the good times I spent with someone whom I know in my heart cared about me. Perhaps that is the best gift that I can leave my own loved ones. I will try harder to do that.