Prickly Summer: Tom and Annie My Paternal Grandparents

Paternal Grandparents Gravestones at River Bend Cemetery
Photos taken by Midge Frazel, 2002

Prickly Summer: Tom and Annie, My Paternal Grandparents

When I was a child, we decorated the gravestones of our close family, near Memorial Day.

One year, I went with my father, without my mother, but just to River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, Rhode Island. 

As I stood in front of the gravestones of the grandparents that died before I was born, I realized that they were fairly young when they died and that they died only a few years apart. Seeing the expression on my face, my father and my aunts told me I had nothing to be afraid of. They mistook my expression as fear not as questioning. When I said that I wasn't afraid, they left me alone. We planted the geraniums and left.

Some stories can only be told from the end. They can take years of research and recording. In this case, several other researchers have been invaluable help. I have blogged about this before, but all of what I have learned needed to be written cohesively. 

My father, the son of this couple, and my mother rest in this plot. Most New England families of the past are buried together. I now know that my maternal grandfather bought plots in nearby Elm Grove Cemetery, in Mystic, CT for himself and his wife and for his children but that is not how it worked out. So, my mother agreed to be buried here with my father's family. 

As people in my father's family have passed away, I have inherited photographs and papers that have helped me piece together this timeline. It has taught me a lot about how genealogy works. For the next few months, I will be writing what I know so my descendants and my cousin's descendants will understand. There's always more to uncover, but for now, I have to stop and get this done.

The last days of a person's life is often the hardest to write about. That's what makes this prickly. You'll see.