"Lynn from Fargo" > wrote in message
...
> OK, here's my story. My dead ex-husband (not in that order) and I
> were married in Bismarck, ND on June 2 of 1973. The plan was that we
> were going to get married, stay in the hotel that night, have brunch
> in the morning with all the out of towners and drive to Minneapolis
> and then on to Ohio. My father in law to be, however, had a heart
> attack in the pool at the Holiday Inn and ended up in the ICU three
> hours before the ceremony. (Which went along as planned.)
>
> We ended up not going to Cleveland to see the rest of John's family
> until August. Did summer theatre at a teeny tiny little theater on
> this side of the Canadian border near Bottineau, ND. ( I directed John
> in Moliere's "Imaginary Invalid" and we played Adam and Eve in "The
> Apple Tree".) By the time we got to Cleveland, John's dad had a
> pacemaker and was much better. The marriage lasted almost 14 years.
>
> During this period several significant things happened. President Ford
> signed the papers which created the Cuyahoga National Recreation area
> on land which borders John's family home in Brecksville on three
> sides. In-laws signed papers deeding said property to the park (after
> the parents deaths). We adopted our daughter in 1982 and in the early
> spring of 1986 when she was 4, her Grandpa died.
>
> Being a most practical man with a most practical wife, they had
> decided to sprinkle his ashes down the side of the hill at the edge
> of their property (park land). When they did that (in the fall) MIL
> decided to put his ashes in a big basket with 100+ daffodil bulbs.
> The MIL, John, his twin sister Jane, their younger sister Sally and
> brother Fred and three grandkids (ours and two of Sal's) sprinkled
> the ashes and the bulbs all down the hillside with the stand of 200
> year old oak trees planted by Moses Cleveland (you remember him -
> Grover's daddy.) They buried the bulbs. The next spring the whole
> hillside came up daffodils. (Eat your heart out Wordsworth.)
>
> John's twin sister died in 1992 and they sprinkled her ashes there
> too. Then in 1995 John died. (We had been divorced for several years
> but had continued to co-parent and spend time together with Carolyn
> and we never stopped performing with each other.
>
> The last thing John did was to direct "Our Town" and the kid and I
> were both in it. We were supposed to perform it in Manitoba six weeks
> after we closed for a little community theater festival. During the
> week before we were to go, John died - in the middle of 'pick up'
> rehearsals. His mom and his sister and brother came from Ohio. We had
> his funeral in the theater - on the stage with the ladders from "Our
> Town". It was the funniest funeral I've ever seen and I only hope
> people laugh half as much at my funeral. I wish we'd taped it. They
> sprinkled John's ashes down the hillside too.
>
> Now I am almost 60. People in my family don't live to be very old. By
> the time my mother was my age, she'd been dead for two years! Carolyn
> has promised that when I die, she will take my ashes to Ohio, sneak
> out to the oak trees (Grammy's still living there!) and sprinkle my
> ashes with her dad's. Then that SOB will have to put up with my
> presence throughout eternity! It ain't over till the fat lady sings
> and I will get the last laugh.
>
> That's my story and I'm sticking to it!


Death is just nature's way of telling you to slow down.

Paul