I’m sure I’ve told you this story, but it’s been a while and we have lots of new Ranchers that may not have heard it. Mr. Virgo is buried on a golf course! Well, sort of. This area was a long time ranch. When the land was sold and developed into a subdivision, there was the question of how to deal with the pioneer cemetery up on the hill. Established in the late 1800’s, when New Castle was a booming coal mining town, locals and miners have been buried there for generations. The final design has the golf course actually circling the cemetery with a right of way where a street gives access for visits and burials.

Mr. Virgo was an avid golfer. He bought me a set of golf clubs for the first birthday I shared with him. This course is right across the road from the house we lived in. Our first outing was on a wonderful fall day. We were on the fairway you see in the background in this photo. I noticed he was looking up at the top of the hill and squinting against the sun.
“Honey…what is that up there?” he asked.

“Oh, that? That’s an old cemetery from the 1800’s. They built the golf course around it.” I told him.

Mr. Virgo turned to me, dropped his jaw, and said, “You’re kidding me….you can get buried on a golf course??? Cooooool!!!” He looked back up wistfully and said, “Wow, I have GOT to be buried up there when it’s my time to go!” We had no idea it would be less than seven years and his wish would be fulfilled.

I call his grave “The 19th Hole”. He’d like that. He had a wicked sense of humor.

I am so grateful that I’m at a place now where I can enjoy family events without the terrible yearning I felt in the first couple of years. Last night, we celebrated my older daughter and son-in-law’s birthdays as well as their 21st wedding anniversary. Dinner for twelve, cake and ice cream, and lots of laughter over family stories. Mr. Virgo would have loved that. That thought went through my mind as I sat there looking at this beautiful family he married into and I smiled. He would have really enjoyed the great food. He would have gotten a kick out of the grandkids and their cousins and how much they’ve grown. He would have loved our discussion of the Pokemon craze and how the forty-somethings kept explaining “But, they’re not REAL.” as we tried to grasp how they get there. I smiled. Sometimes I cry…but not this time. And, this is the true nature of grief. The unpredictability and how some events are OK and some are not…for no other reason than grief knocked at the door and I reflexively opened it up.

Today is my special day with Big. Little is next weekend. I’ll tell a story or two about her Papa over dinner so she never forgets him. And, yeah…I downloaded Pokemon last night so we can chase those little boogers around town today! I’m a sucker for imaginary creatures.

❤️

“We love because he first loved us.”

1 John 4:19 NIV