A Cemetery Visit and Personal Quest

For many years, I always thought my maternal grandmother, who I didn’t know, was buried in another state alongside my grandfather. Several months ago, I found out that she was buried in state and less than an hour from me. After researching some, I found the plot and grave number. I was really looking forward to visiting her gravesite. I didn’t know at the time but this personal quest would take me a few months to fulfill and two trips out to the cemetery in North East, Maryland.

My husband and a sister were with me and once we arrived at the North East United Methodist Cemetery we couldn’t find any grave markers and there wasn’t a caretaker there so we looked all around but couldn’t find the grave. We even looked up other names on graves to try to find the right area but again without any luck. I suspected at this point that she was possibly in an unmarked grave. We stopped at the affiliated church nearby and we were given a phone number to call and had to leave a message. I got these photos from the first visit.

We did run into another couple who were looking for a gravesite also. The mother and daughter were visiting a friend and were having some trouble locating the grave. They told us the name and we were happy to locate the grave for them which was very close to where they were looking. I had just taken this photo from the back before seeing the name on the front of the marker. They were thankful as the mom had to be at work that afternoon. So, even though we weren’t successful in our search, we were able to help someone else. This is the grave they had been looking for and they fixed the items up that had been, probably, blown down by winds.

I waited a little over a week without a response from the caretaker so I called and left another message. Waited again and no answer so I contacted the church again and was told they would also try to contact the caretaker. Waited and waited with no response. At this point, I decided to contact a funeral home in that area by email. I heard back within a couple of days and they gave me the caretaker email and said they would also forward my message. Less than a week later, I received a nice email from the caretaker with his personal phone number. I called and, as I suspected, was told she was in an unmarked grave. I told him I would like to visit so he said to call him a couple days before and he would place orange cones out to show where she was and info on purchasing a marker if I would like. It was about another month before we could get out there and the cones were placed so we knew where to place the flowers we purchased. These are photos from our second visit.

I found out a couple of weeks later from a cousin that our grandmother, actually, had a grave marker but it was removed by another cousin when there were some family squabbles. I can guess what those squabbles were about but it is neither here nor there at this point. I was just happy to visit her gravesite. I know it’s not like her Spirit is just hanging in the cemetery anyway. I’m sure she is enjoying her afterlife with family long gone and not so long gone. Being in some beautiful gardens that I know my own mother enjoyed so much and is probably enjoying now with her mother. I also like to think they look in on me now and then too. I found this feather from my first trip out to the cemetery and I did an edit with it. Just kind of felt like it was a sign and hello from up above. ❤