As the old saying goes, you can't keep a good person down. Even though Vee is temporarily unsubscribed from the PD list, she hasn't stopped reminiscing and writing. She asked me to share this with her many friends on the PD list. Dick Vee L. Housman wrote: > > ME, DADDY, MOTHER, AND NORMA > October 17, 1997 > > Today I treated my sister Norma to lunch, especially because tomorrow > she will be leaving for the Washington, DC, area to live in the vicinity > of our brother John. During our conversation at lunch we talked over a > few necessary things that we felt we needed to tell each other about our > plans, the future and such. One of the things Norma told me was the > arrangements she had formally made for our eventual burials at the > Churchville Cemetery in Oberlin, Dauphin County, PA. We had talked > about it before, but today she showed me the precise arrangement of our > graves: me, Daddy, Mother and then Norma. We joked at the > arrangement--me and Daddy (the smoking section); Mother and Norma (the > non-smoking section)! > > Now, neither of us in our wildest dreams would have ever imagined that > we would eventually end up buried in the same cemetery plot as Mother > and Daddy. I have been married (and divorced) twice, she was married > and is now divorced also. If either of us had ever made such advance > plans for burial plots, we certainly couldn’t have visualized such close > proximity to Mother and Daddy! > > But today we talked about such plans (among others), had a nice > comfortable lunch together, and reminisced about all of our exciting > adventures together in our travels in search of our family roots. We > hadn’t done that in a very long time. In fact, we haven’t been very > close for a number of years. I dropped her back at her house to leave > her with her last-minute packing up, gave her a sincere hug and sincere > wishes, ”Have a good trip and have a good life!” She responded in kind. > > Later, I thought of our brief time together today and very late this > evening, as I thought back on our conversation, I knew that I had to > remind her of one very important thing. And that had to do with “our” > cemetery plot with Mother and Daddy. I woke her up with my phone call > to let her know that if she should get the opportunity to talk with the > custodian of the Churchville Cemetery, she should let him know that if > any veterans organizations would be putting up markers on grave sites in > the future, that they should be aware that both Norma and I served on > active duty in the US Navy--she during the Korean War and I during > Vietnam. > > I ended my conversation with her with a surprising realization. And > that is, that of all of the cemeteries we have visited and all of the > family plots we have stood over and all of the markers we have seen over > our ancestor’s graves for their military service, eventually OUR family > plot will have two markers over them--in recognition of my SISTER and ME > for the years that we, too, served in the defense of our country! > > Now, how’s that for being the first in your family’s long history for > such a cemetery plot!!! > > vee ==== PENNA-DUTCH Mailing List ==== Have you visited the webpage associated with this mail list? If not go to http://members.aol.com/PennaDutch/pennadutch.html