Not a long tale today, but a true one. Ok, all my stories are true. I may need to embellish a part or two, or fudge some of the details to protect the guilty from time to time, though.
This time neither is required making for a singular moment.
I related some time back about my adventures in locating a Cooper Cemetery wherein lies a distant relative (1st cousin 5x removed to be precise). Feel free to check that post to get up to speed for this one. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Literally. It isn’t as if these posts are done in real time.
Back already? My but that was fast. Anyhoo…
I had shared with Pappa Br’er about having found the cemetery since he was part of the original effort to locate it. He and I were back in the vicinity and since the weather was fecking GORGEOUS, I took him over to see it. He found it rather interesting and offered that we may come back and clean out the over growth. The markers are in good condition but, alas, saplings, vines, briars and the like are taking over. It really would not take a full day’s effort to cut them all back and make the site rather nice for a time.
Well, in the search process one story was related to me - told for true as it were - about how a local gentleman had been paid for years by a family descendant to keep the cemetery cleaned and in good order. And how, after that descendant passed away, the money dried up and cemetery maintenance ceased. Alas, the individual relating the tale could not remember any specific people involved. So it was just something he remembered being told but could not confirm.
Keep this in mind. I will return to it shortly.
After Br’er Pappa and I stomped around the (literal) briars for a bit we started making our way back out to the vehicle. Our noise and conversation attracted the attention of an older gentleman who was unloading materials out of his truck nearby. Obviously we were not local residents so we could understand his interest in who these two strangers coming out of the woods were and what they were up to. See the local residents are of a totally different ethnic background than we are. To say we ‘stood out’ is to grossly understate the situation.
So we diverted over to speak with him and allay any concerns he might have about our being up to something nefarious. Not that we are not more than capable of being up to something less than good; We can and often do get into and up to things we ought not.
But this time - for the moment - we were not.
We explained that we were searching for a dead man.
Ok. I said we are not above getting into some mischief. Making this stranger think we were searching for someone in the recently deceased category was too good an opportunity to pass up.
After a moment or three to allow him to imagine all sorts of evil possibilities we went on to explain how one of the people in the cemetery a few yards away is a distant kin to us. We also made specific mention how we are only related to one of the 17 people recorded buried there. Ok, two people if you want to really stretch the concept of related to include our cousin’s father-in-law who is also buried there.
I have tried desperately to link these two to the family whose cemetery this is. But despite all my efforts I can find no trace of the families having and relationship whatsoever! How they came to be laid to rest in this family’s cemetery will just have to remain on of those mysteries lost to history.
It was only a few minutes later that I had the rare experience of having a story confirmed. And by someone directly involved! You see, without our mentioning it or prompting him about the subject, this old gentleman launched into the following:
"There was an old man from that family who used to pay me to keep up that cemetery. But he died about 15 years or so back. And his widow made it clear that she had no intention at all to keep paying ‘too much’ money to keep it up. So the money stopped so I stopped."
He was clearly angling to see if we would offer up the notion of our paying him to start cleaning it again. Little did he know what a cheap SOB (Son of Br’er if you need a safe for the pastor version of what that means) I am!
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