In honor of July 4th, as well as Papa's 92nd birthday on July 7th, my mom, sister, and I (and kids too) headed west to Ohio today to make sure Papa had a flag on his grave. Papa was a veteran of WWII and love, love, loved the American flag. Every morning, rain or shine, he hiked outside to hang Old Glory and salute it (or 'throw it a high ball' as he used to say). And every night, he'd head back out to lower it down again.
We stopped along the way to enjoy a picnic lunch. Papa and Bukky (she hated this nickname btw) loved picnic lunches and we imagined them smiling down on us today.
We gave thanks for all that is good...and even not so good in our lives.
And then we got to see where Papa is 'planted', as Sam says.
After this, we spent some time geocaching. Anyone ever heard of this? If not, read here.(nutshell: treasure hunting with a GPS). My sister and her kids have started doing this and they just love it. Betsy was able to find the coordinates for a geocache that was hidden in the same little cemetary where Papa is.
Once we found the container, we pulled out the treasure and the list of people who have found and replaced it with other treasures before us. This particular site had visitors starting back in 2006 and has had regular visitors since.
We replaced the treasure with a shell from Jekyll Island, GA, where Papa and Bukky spent many winters. Short of shoving an American flag into the tiny container, I can't think of a more perfect replacement for his site :)
~
Hope your 4th is full of treasures of your own :)
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