When: December 30th
Where: Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Why: After learning about my great-grandparents, I found out that my maternal grandma's parents were buried here in Detroit. As this was a cemetery I'd never visited, I took this as the opportunity to check this off my list. After heading to a part of town I hadn't ever ventured to prior to this (north of the Heidelberg Project), I started to just drive through the cemetery as tho I'd find the headstone out of the thousands of them there. Eventually I realized I needed a better system, and found the office. There, I met a very helpful man who needed the name and death dates of my relatives, and he found their file in no time. This cemetery is very organized, down to the plot, and everything is marked out on maps by section and then within the section. 
It was easy to find my family's plot because there is a headstone placed there. I had my hopes up, easily finding my great-grandma's marker behind the family headstone, but had a more difficult time locating my great-grandpa's marker. It was in front, but buried deep in the ground after all these years (he passed in 1933). It took a lot of digging just to barely see his name, but I felt like I was really discovering a piece of my family history. His brother's marker was in a similar condition next to it. I'm planning to go back again in the new year with a trowel to expose both markers. And, truthfully, even tho the idea of visiting graves is a little old-fashioned now with families so spread out, I feel that I might make a visit to my grandparents in the new year, too. I felt a small connection by being here, and after years of not having grandparents to visit, it was nice to have a place to go. 
1 comment:
Matt's grandma and grandpa are buried there. Some of my family might be buried at the Catholic cemetery down the street since they lived nearby. If you want company when you go back, I'd be up for going with you.
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