Our Typical Memorial Day Celebration....

Our typical Memorial Day celebration for the past few years has been to meet at the Orem Cemetery and decorate the graves of my mother and father.  The sun was always out and it was a warm summer day.  Then we have been going to Provo Canyon and enjoying a picnic at the park.  Sometimes it was a little cool because we were in the canyon, but we always had a good picnic and had a good visit with other family members.

When my sister began organizing our family gathering this year, I suggested to her that instead of going to the Orem Cemetery  that we should go to the Spanish Fork Cemetery.  We have over 120 family members buried in the Spanish Fork Cemetery.  The rest of the family agreed to the meeting so the party was on.

We left early enough that we were the first ones to the cemetery. I had made some little cards saying: "We came today to pay our respect to our ancestors who have come before us.  If this card is on one of your ancestors graves also we would love to hear from you.  If you have histories or photographs of these individuals that you are willing to share please e-mail us.  Thank you.  Kathy at khamaker@emerytelcom.net"  I had made 32 cards so my awesome husband and awesome children helped me to find the graves and put the cards in the ground near the headstones.  Oh, and I haven't mentioned it was raining off and on, we didn't see much of the sun and the wind was blowing.  It was nothing like those hot summer days at the Orem Cemetery.

When we had found about the first 28 headstones, the others arrived with different stories of adventures.  Some had driven around, around the cemetery looking for the right spot.  Others waited at the front gate for someone they recognized.  Others ended up at the Provo Cemetery but eventually made it to Spanish Fork.  So we all visited at Grandma and Grandpa's graves for a few minutes then headed off to a park to picnic.

It wasn't raining but the wind was still blowing at the park and it was COLD!  Our picnic lasted about 20 minutes.  That included gathering, eating and clean up.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to persuade the other to be adventuresome again.  I wonder if the sun was shining in Orem Cemetery and Provo Canyon?

2nd great-grandmother

Gudny Arnasdottir wife of Gudmund Arnasson

 26 Dec 1856 - 7 Dec 1915