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23 April 2006 -
Sunday
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Around 9:00 am we
departed Ault and headed for Greeley some 10 miles south. The first item on our
agenda for the day was to visit the grave of our mother Eleanor located at
the Sunset Memorial Gardens. Neither
of us had been there since her burial on September 11, 2001, a day also
simply known to all Americans as 9-11.
During our travels to many cemeteries over the years we had noted that
several of our ancestors did not have any headstones when it was quite
evident that they should have. It is
our belief that in many cases the stones are not delivered by the monument
company as contracted if the family does not follow-up, and as a result the
company simply pockets the funds. As
such we were anxious to make sure our cherished Mother had the proper marking
of her final resting place. Upon our
arrival we parked near where we believed the grave to be located. As
both of us were unable to immediately locate the site we began to think about the possibility that
our family had again run into an unscrupulous monument business which would
necessitate staying in Greeley until
the next day in order to straighten some people out on the good business
practice of delivering what has been paid for. Eventually though Tom found our Mother’s grave marker and all
was right in the world. We took this
time to reflect upon our beloved Mother and how pleased she would
be that her two oldest boys were together on a genealogy trip and back in
Colorado. After taking some
photographs we departed and drove a few blocks into town for a brief visit
with Shannon and John’s mother Sylvia.
Each time Tom is in Colorado he attempts to visit this dear woman who
treated him as a son during his teenage years. Around noontime we
finally got onto Interstate 25 south heading for Colorado Springs. Our next destination was the home of our
sister Susan and brother Bill.
Earlier the prior day Tom had called Sue to let her know we were in
Colorado and that we would be visiting and staying the night. He also conveyed that Fred was hoping that
she would consider preparing her excellent stuffed peppers for dinner. Driving
south we both marveled at how much the cities like Denver and Colorado
Springs |
as well as smaller communities along the front range of the Rocky
Mountains had grown since our previous trip west. It will not be long before the entire 175 miles from Greeley to
Pueblo will become a solid stretch of development. Around 2:30 pm we
reached Colorado Springs where we stopped at a local supermarket and
purchased 10 bell peppers, 3 pounds of cheddar cheese, 6 pounds of ground
meat and three large cans of tomato sauce for our dinner. Subsequently we arrived at our sister’s
where we were given an enthusiastic greeting. Later, Sue sent us back out to the store for a bag of rice and
six more bell peppers! It appeared
that she was prepared to serve dinner to a small army, as is usually the case
at her house. In addition to Sue,
there was our 7-year-old niece Nickeesha, nephew Matthew, aged 16, as well as
our nephew Thomas, his fiancée Kristi and their two children Bayley, age 4,
and 10-month-old son Dakota. Also
living at the house is Martin who is cared for by Sue, who is a Certified
Nursing Assistant.
Matthew, Sue, and Nickeesha
Thomas, Dakota, Kristi, & Bayley All told there were ten of us waiting to partake of those
delicious stuffed peppers. After
dinner Fred and baby Dakota enjoyed sharing a dish of ice cream
together. As Fred hadn’t see his 10
month old granddaughter Eleanor, (named after her great-grandmother), for
over a month young Dakota was quite willing to serve as a substitute for a “grandpa
fix”, as long as there was ice cream! |
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