Ron and I used Mom's recipe to make some Rhubarb Upside Cake this afternoon. It's not as moist and juicy as Mom's, but we didn't do too bad. Nothing a dollop of whipped topping can't solve. Afterward he and I and Dad went to the cemetery. My daughters and husband didn't want to go. I didn't push. Ron had made a silk arrangement that he wanted to put on the shepherd's hook that was in the hole that Dad and David had previously drilled. Dad made some little wooden shims so the shepherd's hook will fit snugly, and he brought some copper wire to secure the basket onto the hook. He worked w/ such tenderness and diligence as he knelt by her grave. He wants to make sure her grave is adorned while at the same time not creating more work for the man who mows the cemetery. Dad has a knack for being practical and sentimental all at the same time.
I always thought the dead were buried on the side of the headstone that shows the names and dates, but it's actually on the other side. When I mentioned this to Dad, he said that it had to be the other way so that when he and Mom sit up, they'll be facing east as the sun rises. He was on the verge of tears as he said this so I didn't pursue its meaning. I have a feeling it was something he and Mom discussed many times as to how they would lie side-by-side in death, her on his left, just as they had slept together in life.
I'd like to plant some rhubarb or a lilac bush or some tulips by Mom's grave to show that here lies a woman who could take the sour things in life and make them sweet and delicious and had a way of making everything and everyone around her more beautiful.
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