Anniversary Celebration

I spent precious time over the last few days with my wife of 35 years. 35 years! She has put up with me that long! We went to some fun restaurants. On Friday, we went to a movie together -- The Help. It was an inspiring movie set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. I lived there then, and although my life was pretty much lived in a different culture -- so much came back to me. It is still hard for me to understand how cultures can become so brainwashed to issues like segregation -- even though I myself could have easily been caught up in it.

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Last night after dining at Texas de Brazil (1st time, it was a blast!), we drove around and ended up at an old cemetery in Wise County. There is a grave there for a 16 year old girl who was killed by the Comanches in 1868 while going to check on her father's horses.

We found another family plot, and I just stood at it wanting to know the story. My mind could only imagine it. Two graves were for children who were born and died the same day. A third grave was for a 5 year old from the same family. And next to the 5-year old was his mother, who had died 6 days later. So I got caught up in imagining the story of this frontier family. A woman who loses two children on the same day they were born, and then loses her 5-year old. Did she and the 5-year old die of typhoid fever or something similar? Or did her child die, and then 6 days later she too died of a broken heart?

I think I will look into this.