Thursday, July 4, 2013

A Bike Ride

Richard was 2 when Grandpa Pilling died. What he knows about him is what he has gathered listening to the rest of us, apocryphal stories, those, and vignettes from Doral’s autobiography. Richard has taken another couple of runs at the book at an adult, the latest read when he began to work in the oil industry.

 ... grave site marker for Doral, Wyora, Will, Edna, and Rita Pilling ...
A number of years ago Richard told me he had visited grandpa’s grave.

“How did you find that? You didn’t ask me where it was.”

He explained to me that bike path goes by the Queen’s Park Cemetery.

 On his cycling trips he would swing by there occasionally, at first to find out where the grave site was and later to check out how everyone who is buried there are doing.

I don’t ever remember taking my kids to show them where Doral’s and Wyona’s grave was.

When Wyora died, Doral told me that he wouldn’t be making visits there.

Where she would live for him was in the memories he had of her when she was alive.

That was his choice.

Richard called me a few days ago from the cemetery.

“Did you know Uncle Richard is buried along with Doral and Wyora?”

“No didn’t.”

“Well, I am here at the cemetery and to my surprise, so is he.”

“Hey, take a picture for me.”

He did.

I studied the spines of the books on the grave marker.

I must have been looking to see if there were any titles by Zane Grey.

Arta


1 comment:

  1. I love this photo. Thank you for finding it Richard and taking a picture to share. Having just been through the process of ordering and installing Annabelle's grave marker, I have a differnt appreciation for these stones. I love that his has that pile of books. Perfect. My thanks goes out to whoever made that happen.

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