Lunch with a friend

First thing on the agenda today was meeting Ruth for lunch. When I joined the Old Buncombe County Genealogy Society a few years back I volunteered my services. I was immediately suggested for a project to visit all the local cemeteries, hundreds of them from the large commercially owned and run cemeteries to the many church and private family burying grounds. We methodically recorded each stone, row by row, section by section, with all the information contained on the stone. The person in charge of this endeavor was Ruth, and we became good friends over the course of the time I worked with her. She was elected to two terms as President of the OBCGS, and still kept up with the cemeteries in addition to all the other calls upon her time. We both agreed that there is nothing more satisfying and peaceful than to walk among the remains of the departed. The result of all our work and that of others who worked on the project, is that to date three books have been published and on sale at OBGCS, listing the burials.

We climbed over and under fences and barbed wire, worked in the hot sun as well as often in a drizzle, and Ruth was forever calmly telling me that I was standing in the middle of poison ivy. We placed Confederate flags on the graves of veterans from that war, and often felt saddened by finding several baby graves from the same family. Some of the inscriptions were serious, many religious, and sometimes we came across humorous ones. And there were those that were lovingly hand carved on a field stone, barely legible over time.

I was so happy we could get together for lunch and catch up on each other's latest news.


(Click on photo to enlarge)

I took Lady to the vet this afternoon to catch her up on three overdue shots, and to get her nails trimmed. She was not happy with the nail trim but not quite as bad as she usually is. Maybe old age is kicking in, because it normally takes at least 3, and 4 is better, people to do the job. This time it was just the vet and his assistant, and she didn't really put up much of a fuss until he got to her front paws. Of course I always have her muzzled for any veterinary treatment, because you can't tell what an 85# dog might do.

No passport today, so I'll have to go back tomorrow to see if it arrived. My days here are dwindling down to a precious few.