A family visit

I’m weird, I know. I like cemeteries. When I’m driving past a cemetery, especially one that looks old, I feel compelled to pull over and take a walk.

In Robert Fulghum’s book, “From Beginning to End: The Rituals of our Lives,” he describes taking a lawn chair to the grave plot he bought for himself and spending a pleasant afternoon. I haven’t gone that far yet, but I do appreciate his sentiment. Graveyards don’t always have to be mournful places.

Visiting my relatives is something I greatly enjoy as part of my family history research. Looking for the final resting places of people you only know by names on a genealogy chart is like hunting for treasure. To me, visiting these places feels like making a connection. You are letting those who came before you know that you remember them, that they mattered to you.

Over the weekend, my husband and I took a trip to Elkins to get out of town. Driving back on Sunday, we took the scenic route to enjoy the beautiful day.

We passed through Adrian and Abbott in Upshur County, where my maternal grandmother, Jeanne Freeman Lipscomb, grew up. My great-grandparents, Bunyan and Breatice Freeman, and my great-great grandparents, Homer and Ella Freeman, are laid to rest at the Point Pleasant Chapel cemetery in Abbott. I had not been there since I was a kid, so it was a moving experience for me to find them again. I couldn’t stay long because people were starting to arrive for church services that morning, but I know I’ll be back.

I’m looking forward to Memorial Day next month and hope that I’ll have the opportunity to visit more family, those who are still with me – and those who are gone. Cemeteries are places of living history.