Planting Iris and Ashes

When my mother died in 2006, we donated her body to the medical school. At the same time, I had a gravestone made and put in a cemetery in Henderson NC.

I had gotten her ashes back but had not had a chance to take them to the cemetery. My oldest granddaughter was getting married the first weekend in August. I thought it might be a good idea to have a couple of days with my second oldest granddaughter before the wedding. So I arranged to meet my son on Saturday in Henderson (which was about half way between our house in Maryland and his house in South Carolina). Then when we were all going to the wedding, he would pick her up at our house on his way up to CT.

I have not been able to find the first part of this narrative for the trip down to Henderson, but I do have a few photos.

Friday 25 July 2008

Approaching the Governor Nice Bridge

Lunch at Arby's near Richmond

We drove down to Henderson and checked into the Hampton Inn about 4.

Lapboard

Since it was early, I decided to try to find a cemetery to take photos.

Map we were given by the hotel

Key to the numbers on the map

and since I saw Ruin Church Road and Big Ruin Creek Church on the map we were given by the hotel, I decided to try to find it. The map was confusing because Big Ruin Creek Church was #7 on the key, but there was no corresponding number on the map. We did eventually get to the cemetery.

Plaque on Big Ruin Creek Baptist Church Organized 1880. Built 1942. Rebuilt 1960

Big Ruin Cemetery

We try to eat at a sit-down (not fast food) restaurant when we are traveling. In Henderson it is difficult to find a restaurant that isn't a chain. Pino's restaurant (which was on the map)

is in a shopping center, but it is a nice place. They have a regular menu and a specials board.

Specials and Sign in the window of Pinos

I had the

Steak special (8 oz ribeye with a side of spaghetti)

Bob's ravioli

The dinner for two (no drinks, no dessert) was $23.06

Saturday July 26, 2008

We had some car trouble yesterday with a belt slipping and making a big noise. Bob went out this morning to see if he could fix it. He could not. He disconnected the belt (which was one of those to the generator), but he wanted to buy another one. So we ate breakfast earlier than I would have ordinarily wanted to do.

Looking out on the pool from our room

I didn't get a chance to swim in the pool. Bummer.

We went out in town to look for an auto parts store, and Bob stopped and bought what he thought would be a replacement belt. When we got it home, we found that it would not have worked if we had needed it. So it was just as well that we didn't.

Main Street of Henderson

Originally, I had intended to leave the hotel just before the checkout deadline and go somewhere to lunch and then meet my son and his daughter at the cemetery after lunch to have a little DAR ceremony where we buried mom's ashes and planted the iris that were named for her over the ashes by her grave marker.

But Bob was worried that we wouldn't get home before dark if we did that, so we went on and planted everything first.

Bob planting iris

After we finished with Mom's grave, I walked around the cemetery and took pictures of other markers there.

Markers in the cemetery

Then we drove into town and got lunch at KFC

KFC for lunch

and got diesel in the car and drove back to the cemetery

Henderson Clock

Garnett Street

Main street in Henderson

My son arrived at the cemetery at noon.

My son at the cemetery

He and my granddaughter had already eaten. We exchanged stuff - he gave us our granddaughter's luggage for a 10 day stay, and we gave him the things that I had found that were his from our house, including his portfolio of art, his trophies and ribbons and so on.

Rob cross country on Britches - framed photo which was one of the things I gave him

Just as we were leaving, we saw someone turn into the cemetery and it turned out to be the lady from the D.A.R. who had been on vacation and so hadn't responded to my emails. So we went back to the cemetery and had the ceremony.

My mom's grave

Three generations

Then we both left Henderson.

We did get back to Leonardtown before dark, and had an early dinner at Arizona Pizza (which is no longer there) before going back to the house.

Appetizer and my stromboli

Granddaughter's personal pan pizza$5.00

My granddaughter and I decided to visit Colton's Point and St. Clements Island on Sunday. That's because I wanted to get some pictures of Blackistone lighthouse, and the water taxi only runs on the weekends.