Headstone in Payson Cemetery

I have not done well in keeping up this blog. But today I feel motivated to try to restart. We'll see if I can do a little better in keeping up, at least occasionally.

Since Sarah's wedding in August (and my last post to the blog), the major event in my life was the passing of my dear Mother last November. We had a wonderful funeral, with almost all of her descendents attending and participating (except for two grandsons, Matt on his mission in Chile and Andrew who could not get away from school at UCLA).

Since Mom died in November, we were not able to get the headstone updated and re-seated through the winter months. They had to wait for the ground to thaw and dry out. Conditions finally were right last week, and today, Bonnie and I went to Payson to see the results. (Click on any photo to view a larger and more detailed copy.)

Note the granite slab between the cement and the headstone — that's something we had added. It makes the headstone more permanent, protected, and durable, and also a little more visible. The cement foundation was badly worn in the original mounting, and looks so nice now that it's fresh and new.
This next picture shows our stone behind Uncle Albert's. You can see that the mounting (with the extra granite) is similar to his now; ours is actually slightly thicker. That was not intentional (no one ever asked me or told me how thick the granite would be); but it does help our stone to be more visible from the road.

This picture shows the Kenison family area. Grandma Kenison is in the lower right, the two children's graves next to her, and then our headstone behind Uncle Albert's on the left:

The other addition we had done while the stone was removed for engraving was to put the names of the five children of our parents on the back of the stone:

Earlier in the winter, I could see through the snow that the ground above the graves had settled very unevenly. I was grateful to see that it had been adjusted and smoothed out. As the grass grows in better this spring, it will look nice.


It was poignant today to remember the many visits I made with Mom over the years to the grave. The last time we came, she seemed disbelieving — "You mean I'm going to be put down there??" But now, it felt peaceful to me to have the stone in its place. I'm sure there will be many visits to this quiet place in years to come.