Who knew? Most of us might be under the assumption that each and every cemetery is well groomed. A few years ago, I found out that I was quite naive. I traveled alone to my hometown of Brownsburg, Indiana, in search of my ancestors graves. They were the Browns and the founders of Brownsburg, Indiana. I was certain that my way back Great Great Great Great Grandfather may not have flowers placed on his stone anymore and that the lettering may have faded almost away. Maybe covered in black fleshly mold, but not in disgrace. Not the way I found it.
It was March, and freezing out. I had decided the only way I would look at graves would be when I knew the ground was frozen. I did not want to step down in to any sunken graves and be attacked by ants or hornets. But, mainly, I knew from stories from my mom, that some of the graves were in snake pits and others were set right by a ravine with water moccasins.
I could understand these graves being lost, never to have a little man come around pulling weeds and setting stones back up. I am absolutely, with out a doubt, terrified of snakes. Even the plastic ones from the store. But, I found myself bravely walking where it looked like no one had before.
One grave site was in town, close to the downtown. If I could have swam through the three foot tall dead grass……It was by far the spookiest graves I had ever seen in my life. Tall, dark,and scary. As I dutifully checked each tombstone, I found I had worked my way to the back. Way, way back. To the right of me was the deepest ravine, and if I slipped down there, I would not be found for a while.
As I started to turn left and work my way back to the front, I nearly jumped out of my skin. A pig began to squeal so loud that I was sure it was racing up the ravine to attack me. Or worse, it was being chased by something big that wanted to eat it. Even though all the hairs were standing up on my arms and neck, I was determined to make sure to check each tomb. As the pig kept squealing, I noticed a crow flying around and around over the deep hole. I never saw any kind of animal racing frantically at me, but have always wondered if the crow was just trying to scare me off and was screaming, hoping I would run.
I sent pictures of where I was at to my husband. He texted back that it was right out of a mystery movie. I did not find family there. But I did go a few blocks over to the Brownsburg Library and spent the rest of the day and part of the night there going through old pictures of my ancestors and history books………..
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