Friday, August 22, 2008

By the Shores of Gitche Gumme

We spent the night in Baraga, MI this past Monday. My sister in-law of 37 years is buried there. She divorced my husband's brother ten years before she died and my niece and nephews chose to bury her by her parents and brother in the tribal cemetery. She was Obijway, but lived most of her life in California. Now she rests in a simple cemetary plot near her hometown by the shores of Lake Superior. I would have gone back too if that had been my childhood home.
We weren't sure where her grave was and first walked the cemetary closer to town without finding her grave. Someone told us the tribal cemetary was a little further up the road. Jon did not hold much hope for spotting it. I insisted he let me get my morning exercise walking up and down looking. He dropped me off and the first headstone I spotted was her parents. She is by them in the family plot. Many of the older graves are marked with simple wooden crosses. The crosses will probably not last like the granite will. A good reminder. "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return." Words spoken at Catholic Ash Wednesday services.

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