October 10 - “Grave- digging”

We left Waco first thing yesterday morning, and we headed to … not Galveston. Well, Galveston was our ultimate goal, of course. But we decided to embark on a bit of an adventure first. 

After a quick breakfast at McDonald’s, we turned the car in the direction of a little town north of Marble Falls called Burnet. That’s pronounced “BUR nit” by the way.  And why there? We were hoping to do some grave digging. 

OK. OK. Not literally shovels in the dead of night, Dr. Frankenstein grave digging. Our hope was to dig into the records at the local cemetery and find the unmarked grave of Sam’s brother Ronny. She had hoped if it was possible to be buried next to him. She always meant to put a headstone over his grave, but just never got around to it. Since all the cemetery data bases are keyed to headstones, we haven’t been able to locate where his grave is actually located. Hence … the adventure. 

On the way we did see some fun sites. We passed some kind of wildlife refuge. No sign or anything, but there must have been 50 or 100 deer just lolling around. That was located just outside of beautiful downtown Pidcoke. What’s a Pidcoke? And the road outside of Pidcoke led us right into the booming metropolis of Topsy (never saw it. Must have blinked). I thought we were trapped in an episode of Peter Rabbit. Especially when a huge hawk swooped right in front of the car, no doubt chasing the descendants of said literary bunny. That hawk sure looked well-fed. 

Once we got to Burnet we set about the task of grave digging. First we drove through the cemetery to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Then we made a stop at the city offices to check the records to see if they knew where Sam’s brother might be buried. The lady who helped us was amazing. She said her boss had even been involved in this search already from when Sam’s sister called. They even pulled the antique record system (an actual physical book). They found the grandparents, but no one else. She suggested we take some pictures of nearby headstones so they could compare notes in the book. 

So back to the cemetery we went. In the meantime I found a rough site map with the latitude and longitude of the mother’s gravestone. We followed that and walked around until we found it. I took some pics and we headed back to the city offices. 

Meanwhile, I also texted Sam’s cousin to see if she knew anything about the grave locations. Our newest best friend in the city office was hooked by the search by this time. She made us a copy of the cemetery site plan and marked which one was the grandparents. We showed her the photo of the mom’s stone, so she penciled it in. And lo and behold, while we were trying to figure out a next step, Sam’s cousin texted back. She named the occupants of the family tract. Grandparents. Check. Mom. Check. And after a long pause … the brother as well. Eureka! The lady at the city office was happy as well. Now she can update at least one of her records. 

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭11‬ ‭ says, And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.

Father, thanks for helping us wade through all the issues in finding the graves. Bless that lady in the city office for her patience and persistence. Amen.