Visiting graves . . . did you do it?

garybuss

Today we had a nice road trip and visited two cemeteries where grandparents and aunts and uncles are buried. We usually make the yearly trek on Memorial weekend but this year we helped my son move and were out of town.

It's an upbeat day. We visit the towns, streets and houses of my earliest memories. Then we have a nice lunch in a favorite restaurant and head home. It's a time for quiet reflection and story telling. We visit the site of a small town Kingdom Hall my uncle built with a cigarette in his mouth and the farm my brother and I stayed at and played at and the small lake where we'd go fishing.

I never remember my parents visiting graves. I remember them taking my grandfather to tend live flowers on my grandmother's grave, but I can't remember them ever visiting graves apart from that. I really don't know of any Witnesses I knew visiting graves. Maybe they did it and I just wasn't aware of it.

How about you all? Did you visit graves as Witnesses?

TresHappy

Yes but I was told that doing genealogy was a waste of time.

EvilForce

I never did as a Dub. I do now...but not to visit any dead people but to see the various gravestones. I have been to the main graveyards in Milan, Zagreb, Budapest, and many other places. I find them rather facinating. Yes, I have a screw loose....I know.

garybuss

I have easily traced both of my father's parents to Oldenberg Germany. I don't know anything about my mother's parents.

greendawn

I did occasionally to see the graves of grand and great grand parents, only rarely because cemeteries have a creepy feel. I noted their dates of birth and death for reasons of family history.

fleaman uk

I did it for the first time about 5 Years ago...i have a distant relative buried in Belgium (Soldier of the first world War).I found the Grave and was actually quite emotional...strike that,i was extremely Emotional,and im not that type as a rule...

Anyhoo,i was counselled at the next Meeting "Brother,we have to be very careful not to idolize the so called glorious Dead"....Dickhead.

blondie

Some went, mostly older people to make sure the grass was mowed; to trim any perennials or rosebushes they may have planted.

I don't even know where my grandparents are buried.

I have gone with my in-laws when I was a JW; they put lit candles in small paper bags and went down in the evening and just reflected

I think it is better to visit people when they are alive.

Blondie

garybuss

We viewed stones too. There were a lot of infant mortalities in 1918 to 1920. I wonder if the WW I guys brought back some bad bugs. Maybe there was just a baby boom after that war too and the higher number of lost infants just reflects a higher number of births.
I can almost feel the grief of those parents laying their infant down. Reality has some sharp edges.

jeanniebeanz

I do. Not as a JW, but now. It helps sometimes to reflect on ones roots.

I often wonder how it is that an evil apostate woman visits my non witness relatives more often in the graveyard than my parents ever did when they were alive and could really have used the attention...

J

Nathan Natas

There is no one in my immediate family who I would visit.

I sometimes visit old cemetaries when I'm in an area new to me. I bring my camera and take pictures of those items that strike my fancy. I conduct myself appropriately for the circumstances.

I have visited the graves of people I consider noteworthy. For example, I have visited the grave of Bruce Lee a couple of times. It is always well groomed and decorated due to the continued remembrance of Sifu Kimura, who was one of Bruce's original students. Such devotion is rare and noteworthy.

People who only know Bruce Lee from his movies will probably not understand, but Bruce was the Newton/Edison/Einstein of his field.

I would like to visit Rutherford's grave on Staten Island in New York, even though it is unmarked and shares the plot with untold others who died while serving at Bethel. Then I would like to visit Rutherford's REAL grave in San Diego on the Beth Shan property. I would do this in the company of Farkel, and we would share a few beers with old Joe. First we would drink them, then Joe would get 'em.

Visiting graves . . . did you do it?

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