A Cemetery Tale

No Oct is complete without a cemetery story, right?

Well I have one and its not really a spooky one, but a strange one.

I was taking photos down at the Monongahela Aquatorium a few weeks ago, and a guy was telling me about the witch's tomb that's located there.

Poor Josephine Colvin, is the witch in question. If you look up her obituary, there's no way she's a witch, but her family does have a huge and unusual monument.

I was also at the cemetery for another reason. A friend of mine passed away in 2016. I didn't know about it for until last year, as she had severed ties with me for political reasons years before. I always thought of her and I was heartbroken to learn she had passed. We may not have always seen eye to eye, but she was a good friend and we had some great times together.

So as I was traipsing about the old section, a little blue car comes flying up the hill from the lower end of the cemetery.

OK, didn't think much of it, though the cemetery isn't a race course, as my father would say. I finished taking my pictures and went to look up the location of Mary's final resting place. I started to drive looking for Sec 26. I found it and pulled over and began to hunt down her grave.

I make a bend and there's the blue car and another SUV pulled together and two people around 55-60 I'd say, sucking face on the hillside.

I think I gave them a scare as I came swishing about through the leaves.

I can't imagine anyone finding the cemetery a romantic place to go for some stolen kisses, though from their age, I'd say they were meeting there to hide from their spouses. It wasn't very long after I walked by that they got in their cars and headed off.

Weirdness

I did find my friend's grave though, and I had a good cry over her.

Friends That Have Gone

I had a friend from college that passed away at the beginning of 2016. She was only 5 years older than myself.

At the time, we hadn't been speaking in several years. We didn't share the same political views and things got very nasty a few times.

I have always felt bad about this situation, because the break in our friendship came from a lot of, I don't want to say misunderstanding, but rather of not understanding.

It was at the time my dad was starting to get sick, which was after my grandmother had passed away. I couldn't go out a lot and I had to do most of the cooking then, as my mother's sight was failing. She didn't understand. Also, I hate Kings, which seemed to be her restaurant of choice for meetups.

I made a political post on Facebook one day, and she blew up on me, and said I hated her mother and then she deleted her account and was never heard from again, by me.

I was totally befuddled.

I found out her mother passed away in 2013, but I didn't learn that until much latter. I didn't learn Mary had passed until last year.

Every time I drive by Monongahela Cemetery I think of her. I wonder what happened because I don't have contact with any of her family members.

It is so sad that our friendship had to end the way it did.

I can only hope wherever she is now, that she's at peace.

The Ever Changing Landscape of Friends

I always see these poignant captioned photos on facebook about friendship, and how you can have a friend that you don't speak to in ages, but when you see each other again, its like time hasn't passed at all.

I'm sorry, that is not always the case.

Life circumstances change friendship. I know this because I'm 43 and single, no kids, except furry ones and a caregiver for my mother. I'm also a bit curmudgeonly or bitchy if  you so prefer. My scope of friends has always been small. It's dwindled down to almost zippo at this point. I'm sure the bitchiness is part of it, but, oh well.

As people move on with their lives finances change, dreams change and the things you had in common with people change. That changes the friendship too. Sometimes the friendship can still exist, other times they just dissolve.

Most of the friends that I've had over the years have nothing in common with me anymore. Some I still talk to, but that doesn't mean the closeness is there.

Maybe I've never had a real best friend.

I should probably stipulate, I was always a loner even though I always dreamed of being "Popular." What girl doesn't. I wanted friendship like "Friends" "Coupling" and "The Big Bang Theory" but it never happened for me.

It probably never will.

I think I'll go pet my cats now.