The Best Day In A Very Long Time

This greeted me last night as I stumbled into the bedroom...ready to fall into bed at 12:45 a.m.

This might the reason I sneeze over and over in the morning?  Perhaps I have developed an allergy to cats?

My sister and I had planned an afternoon adventure for today and, we woke to heavy rain and 50 degrees.  She e-mailed at noon that the rain was suppose to stop any minute and the afternoon was supposed to be dry and a bit of sun, sooooooooooooooo

She got here at 2:15 and we took off.  I wanted to drive because I wanted to take an unknown road and see if it led to where we wanted to go:  Holly, Michigan, where our great grandparents on our Mother's side are buried.

Susan and Chuck had been to Holly, looking for the cemetery, but they thought it was in town...and it is, but on the northern outskirts of town, invisible from the main drag.

I was last there when I was ten years old--to my great grandfather's burial.  You think 65 years later I could find it?

I drove right to it, LOL.

"How in the world did you know...after all this time?"

"I have no idea, Suz."

"Do you know where the graves are?"

"Yes, right up this drive...to the top of the hill..and turn left.  I remember, going up this hill."

So, I drove to the top of the hill, turned left and drove to where I thought the graves were.  Couldn't spot them, so I kept driving and about half-way down, Susan yelled,  "Hudgins!  There they are!"

Someone has since put a marble seat with the family name on it.  There they were, our great grandparents.  He was a Methodist minister, as was his father, and his son (our grandfather), His grandchild (our Uncle) and his great grandchild (our cousin.)

Our great grandmother's family.

The lake in the background is named for them

Bush Lake

Then Susan said, "According to the family tree stuff, Great Grandma's nephew fought and died in the Civil War and there is suppose to be a monument, somewhere in here with his name on it.

So I drove along the drive and out toward the front in a different direction and all of a sudden, she yelled again.  "Look!  That looks like some kind of war memorial."

and it was, and on this side--there was his name.

He was with the Michigan Cavalry--

Alexander Bush, Jr.

...and he died on Missionary Ridge in Tennessee.

He was only 17 years old!!!

We got to talking about it and both realized, at almost the same time, this man's great nephew, our Grandfather was also in the Cavalry---in WWI--also a medic and a Chaplain.

So, we drove away and I turned toward town.

"I'm going to try and find their house...so I can show you."

"How can you possibly know...and...after sixty-five years, don't you think things have changed?"

"I remember, it was down at the end of a street---just before you get to the railroad tracks.   Just a block east of the main corners in town."

Drove right to it.  LOL.  I wish I'd taken a picture.  The house HAS changed, but the enclosed front porch is still the same.

Our Great Grandparents on our Mother's father's side.  Ida May Bush and James Alfred Hudgins.  She looks pretty healthy, but...she died just four hours after this picture was taken.

We drove around, trying to find the Methodist Church, but it was gone.  They have built a new, larger one on the south end of town.

Susan and I were only gone two hours---but nearly 70 miles on the car and we had a wonderful afternoon.  

We have done this very thing a few times--going to cemeteries and trying to find our ancestor's.  It's good that I am much older than she is--she wasn't even born until after these great grandparents died--and, although she has the family history of where the people are buried, I usually remember going to the funerals/burials, so I can find the graves, without having to walk all over an entire cemetery.

It was a wonderful afternoon!!