Wild West

October 21, 2009 by Melanee.

A week and a half ago we received the news that Randy’s mother-in-law (Gayle’s mother) passed away. I was able to visit with her twice. Zoe, being 93 years of age along with her husband, Karl, who is 91 showed how being married for 70 years can be really precious or cute. My first visit was a really sweet scene of them sitting up and leaning towards each other touching heads while they both slept. I wish I had a camera to freeze that scene, but it will stay in my mind forever. Karl cared deeply for his bride and did everything he could to make her comfortable.
We traveled to a remote town of Ely for her funeral. That’s where they lived most of their married life. We traveled 3 and half hours with only passing maybe seven remote towns along the way. Lots of sage brush, dry lake bed, pinion pines and the beautiful mountains that bound the land. I compared it to my three hour trip to New Jersey to visit my grandchildren- huge difference in people, population, cities, and scenery.
The funeral was very touching. Randy and Gayle’s two brothers, Terry and Reg, spoke. Laura, Randy’s daughter, played a beautiful piece on the piano. Other friends spoke and did musical numbers. Terry’s family did a beautiful job with the display of quilts, funeral programs, family pictures, copies of family recipes to pass out, and cookies to munch on. Family gathered together for prayer-there was not a dry eye due to the great love for their mother and grandmother.
But something happened during the burial services that should be written in the family history for posterity’s sake. This helped lighten the mood and really created lasting memories that will never be forgotten. I don’t know all the reasons why this occurred. Maybe it was because it is a small town. Townspeople are usually in charge of certain things and maybe this part did not get done. This experience made a good story and the family laughs about it to this day. They also think Gayle and her mother were laughing during the whole ordeal.

When the hearse arrive and the family gathered near the grave site. They noticed that there were no bars to set the casket on or straps or machine to lower the casket after the dedication. There was just a real deep hole about 8 feet deep with the plastic cover to seal the casket off to the side about 10 feet.There was a problem-there is no way to lower grandma into the ground.
The wife of the graveyard keeper was calling her husband to tell him there was nothing available to lower the casket. She started talking on the phone while the grave was being dedicated, so she was politely asked to leave the area while she tried to see what needed to be done.
But, one the sons, Ronnie, took charge and found someone to go home and get three twenty five foot straps and three two by fours. A few minutes later they were brought to the site. The boards were put across the hole and casket was set on top. A fellow in his thirties was lowered down to place the bottom half of the plastic cover before the casket was lowered. He got everything set and tried to get out of the hole himself, but he dislodged rocks on the side that landed on the cover bottom. He was lowered again to clear all the rocks. They moved the casket out of the way put the two by fours across the hole and the fellow hiked himself up like dismounting parallel bars. The casket was lowered by the sons and grandsons, but someone noticed that the spray of flowers were not removed from the top. So, one of the light and agile grandsons who was 10 years was lowered upon grandma’s casket and retrieved the flowers. The straps were removed and the plastic cover to seal the casket was lowered with the straps to cover the casket. The same grandson was lowered again to jump on the cover to make sure it was sealed. There was a jovial mood about the whole thing and all the family members said they now have a story to tell that will be passed down through the generations.
These small towns produce resourceful people who take the situations as they come. They try to solve the problem, laugh about it, and get on with life without complaining.
Welcome to the wild west!

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