27 March 2025
Raleigh, Pucket, Forkville, Independence, Bay Springs. More names that pop up that bring out more memories for me. I’ve been to all under all kinds of circumstances, whether church related or skating rinks, or just trips with my Grandmother Ruby. She had a bit of wanderlust in her which seems to have been passed on to me.
In route to visit my cousins Charles, Minnie Jean and Regina, I stopped at the Sims’ Hill Cemetery to visit some relatives. There are some Tadlocks (maiden name of my Grandmother) and other relatives there in addition to a lot of the people I went to school with or the parents and grandparents of those students.
It’s an attractive cemetery whose centerpiece is a massive oak tree.
Some of the graves are really ancient.
I arrived there about the time a guy started mowing the grass. After a while, he shut the mower off and wandered over and introduced himself as Ron Neal. The Neal family is fairly prominent in the cemetery. I suspect he thought I was drunk as I staggered through the graves. I still don’t walk very well, particularly on grass or undulating ground.
He says he was chosen by default to cut the grass today since the usual person was not available. He’s on the board that controls the cemetery. We talked about the difficulty of upkeep of small cemeteries throughout the U.S. There’s problems with space, materials left out in the path of the mower, money, sinking headstones, and volunteers.
We saw the same with Searcy Cemetery. For years, until he no longer could, my brother would travel over from Brandon and cut the grass. My Dad set up a fund to pay for the mowings but my brother never charged him. My Dad, of course, was the biggest financial donor to the cemetery. My cousin Charles would often cut it, also.
After visiting the relatives at Sim’s Hill, I headed to Minnie Jean and Charles’. It was so good to see them again after all the medical issues Charles has had this past year. Not long after, my cousin Regina from Uncle Ray and Aunt Minrose came in. I hadn’t seen her since she was a toddler. One caveat, she says she saw me at my Mom and Dad’s one year when she was still fairly young. I didn’t remember that.
We caught up with family: the Savell’s, the Risher’s, the Cooper’s, the Searcy’s, and the Hurst’s. In reliving memories, we each learned something new about each family which is kind of neat. When we should have been listening to our grandparents drone on about relatives, we didn’t pay enough attention and we’ve had to piece the information together ourselves. There’s a good warning to the younger generation – listen to your grandparents droning.
I was at Archie and Tanis’ around 10:15 this morning and Ashely and Billy were already active. It was quickly explained to me that a trip to Meridian to eat at Weidman’s was not as important as me going to Walmart and Home Depot to pick up a crock pot, have some keys made, and a blood pressure cuff. Yes, ma’am.
I’ll be there around 10:45 tomorrow. Billy leaves tomorrow, and we will try to tie up loose ends. I owe such a large debt of gratitude to my niece, Ashley, and my nephews Billy and David for their help. I wasn’t much help other than tripping over my feet. What these three have accomplished in 5 days is amazing. David came to help after work, Billy scheduled around his time and Ashley both worked and took time off. It’s really nice when family comes together.
Stay tuned!
