Cleaning The Gravestones October Project 1

We spent a lovely afternoon in the graveyard cleaning the family graves; actually one. The children chose my great aunt who died when she was only 14. This of course fascinates them as she died of an ear infection before the advent of antibiotics. Her father was away at war and did not know he had lost her until he returned many weeks after. I cannot even imagine.


This is our first October project of 2 planned (see previous post - Oct Prep Page). My children love to clean the graves, to hear the stories, to add flowers, that we may remember, celebrate a loved one, in this case a girl we never knew. It is good to celebrate the circle of life. My daughter made a lovey candle with a guardian angel she drew and wrote Angel Dear, the verse we are saying in the morning, on the back.

The children cleaned other graves in the area, my son took to lifting grass from small grave walls and my daughter as always wanted to scrub the stone lamb on a nearby unattended grave of a 3 year old girl - brushing and polishing until its white granite shone again.

Most years we try to do all our graves, in all three graveyards, in the fall around Halloween. This year I decided to do one grave well. To enjoy the process instead of rushing to get them all done. I was inspired by the way the families in Greece tend their family graves, then inspired again by the celebration of The Days of the Dead in Mexico.I wanted to make more of our Halloween, to recognize that death too is part of life.

Grand dad came with us as he has in past. He thinks his mother would like this tradition.

The sun shone instead of biting winds or rain. We are out a couple weeks earlier this year. An early start on Halloween, Dia de los Angelitos and Dia de Todas las Almas. October project 1!