Tea Stands for Magic at the Cemetery

The weather was so nice three days after Mother's Day and we had nothing planned so it seemed a good time to go to the cemetery to visit my folks.

Before we left, I packed Ma's giant, all-purpose scissors in my bag. Since the cemetery is near Springfield, Massachusetts, I chose an homage to Springfield's favorite son, Dr. Seuss (Ted Geissel) Himself had given me an empty soda bottle because he said when he went to visit his parents' the water in the cemetery hadn't been turned on. On the way, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a posey of flowers.

As I was at the trunk (boot) getting ready to trim the floral stems, a couple of ladies stopped by to see what was going on. They chatted about the weather and as they watched what I was doing, one of the ladies said, "I hope you have some water, because..."

 I held up the soda bottle. "I brought my own."

"Oh, I thought that was ginger ale."

"Well, it was her beverage of choice."

They smiled, wished us a nice day, and continued on their walk

Entering the cemetery, there was a committal ceremony taking place so I couldn't take pictures. This is one of the flowering trees at the Columbarium across from the area where my folks are.

Funny to see the ginger ale bottle in the photo

Ginger ale was always on the table at any of the family functions.

Flower always brought to Ma and placed on her side of the stone. Dad would have wanted it that way, but I grabbed a couple of stems and laid them at Dad's place.

While I was walking to the grave, Himself said he saw a male cardinal fly into the copse that marks the border of this section of the cemetery. I always associate cardinals with my parents. They loved feeding and watching the birds and after my parents passed, I began seeing cardinal pairs, a male and female. Ma and Dad as my parents did everything together.

I couldn't see the cardinal, but I could hear him singing. Dad loved to sing and he had a beautiful voice. When he retired he took singing lessons from an opera singer. Dad sang in his church choir and with his Senior Center's glee club, the Goldenaires. He later became the director of the his Senior center group.

That morning as I was getting dressed, I was debating between two necklaces and chose the one with the cardinal

After the cemetery we planned on stopping for late lunch/early dinner at the Cracker Barrel, but we were chatting and laughing and Himself missed the exit. He briefly debated turning around, but he was hungry so we headed home and stopped at

The Longhorn Steakhouse at the mall.

Himself had a Coke. I had a raspberry iced tea with lemon. The waitress brought us some bread while we waited for our meal. Oh, note the strawberry shortcake on the dessert menu. I got a slice to go, but forgot to take a picture.

We started with cheesy, stuffed mushrooms

A salad. I asked for mine without nasty cheese

I had a surf and turf: Renegade steak with Prairie Dusting, grilled shrimp on a bed with rice. I didn't realize the shrimp came with rice. Otherwise, I wouldn't have ordered the baked sweet potato. No matter lots of food leftover and no cooking the following day.

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