At Fellowship Yesterday

At Fellowship Cemetery in Lamar County, Alabama, yesterday I was there with my cousins Charlie and Eloise Alexander and their daughter Linda Hester. The first Sunday in May is always Decoration Day at this church, my mother's church, a short distance from where she grew up in the Vernon area. She and my father are buried there along with my Mother's parents and Rube Burrow, the famous Alabama outlaw of the 19th century to whom we are related by marriage.

Decoration day started in the South after the War to honor the Confederate war dead. It continues even today when we place flowers on the graves of our departed, usually parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles once a year. The first Sunday in May is always this church's day in the Southern sun.

So there we all are decorating the graves and visiting. Charlie and Eloise are pushing toward 80. I do not know how long they will be able to come up from Mobile to this annual event.

Linda and her family---husband Clay, son Dusty, daughter Melissa---are settled in Pensacola after Clay's Navy career had taken them to the Azores and to Maine. Clay will retire from the Navy after 30 years sometime next year. Clay wanted to come yesterday, but has the flu or something and had to stay home.

Linda will be a grandmother by the end of the year as Melissa is expecting, due in September. They already know it will be a boy, and his name will be Jacob Alexander. She is excited and all her family seems to be doing well.

We had fun thinking about Faye, my cousin, who passed away last December. I am reminded that Faye loved the Boston Celtics and the NBA and she really got into the NBA playoffs this time of year.

It's so good to visit with family. It may seem strange to be visiting in a cemetery, but this is one of the ways of The South.