Sunday In The Park and other things

I went to Lakewood Cemetery and put flowers on my family graves. Every year at Memorial Day I struggle with whether or not I'm going to go to the cemetery and bring flowers. When my mom was alive she and I would go every year to my grandparents grave. In face we use to call it our yearly battle because even after 30 years we would argue on how to get to the grave site. She'd say go right, I'd say go left and sometimes she was right and some years I was right. If you've ever been to Lakewood Cemetery you'll understand why it is so confusing because the roads wind and merge and there are many different ways to get to the same place.

I think it might be that it's just kind of sad to go by myself. So this year I brought Freckles. I'm not sure if it was the best idea but she seemed to enjoy peeing on various graves (I'm thinking of hiring her out for that service) and rolling around in the grass. I hope the occupants thought it was fun to watch.

I heard one couple who were spending a great deal of time grooming the grave site of someone say to each other "I wonder if anyone will even bother to visit us when we're here." And I had been thinking the same thing. I know when I'm gone no one will ever visit my mom's grave. My brother and his kids don't do that now. And no one will be stopping by my grandparents' site either. And that's not really such a bad thing. When my dad died he was cremated, which was what he wanted. He said he didn't want anyone to come and visit a grave, he'd rather have us sit on a park bench somewhere and just think about him. I think he had the right idea.

It's a beautiful Sunday. Freckles and I went to the park and it was almost surreal. There were kids playing, lots of people walking their dogs, a father and son tossing a baseball, and a guy sitting on a bench playing the violin. I felt like I was on a movie set. If only George Clooney would come walking on to the set it would be perfect.