Do families still spend special days in the cemetery? When I was growing up, we’d go to Windsor Grove Cemetery where my great-grandparents are buried and have a picnic on beautiful, summer, Sundays after church. In elementary school, my friends thought it was macabre and in high school, kids made fun of me. Most of the time we’d go with my Grandparents. They’d have the folder lawn chairs with colourful plastic strapping and my parents and siblings would sit on a blanket on the ground. My mom was insistent that we “not walk on the people” and carefully stay on her imagined sidewalk between the graves. There was no throwing a ball or playing because that would have been disrespectful. We’d sit in our church clothes and chat softly while having whatever kind of lunch Grandma made. Often, my parents and Grandparents would laugh at a shared memory of the great-grandparents we were visiting.
In adulthood and after my Grandma was gone, I got out of the habit but I’m thinking this is the time to start again. It’s such a nice way to remember people with love and the good times you had with them.
Connie – 52 – Colchester
Picture of Windsor Grove from 1953 from SWODA. Click here to see original source.
English (United States) 
English (Canada)