Welcome to my site. This is a gift from my husband, who is a very wonderful man. My passion is grave yards the older they are the more I love them. My wonderful husband thinks I like them because I am looking for my next home. For you see I turned 40 today and he said that I was over the hill. Most women want gifts for their birthday but all I want is a day out looking for grave yards. Today when we were out my sweet little girls found a grave site that had mom and dad on it. They said hey look its you and daddy and it is over the hill too. Bless their little hearts, you can tell they are their daddy's little girls.

I have always loved grave yards, as a child we lived next to one. All the children in the neighborhood played there. It was our play ground. We had apple trees to eat from, ponds to play in ,well not all of us was brave enough to swim there. We never called this place a grave yard it was always called the duck pond. All us kids would raid the bread box to go to the duck pond or we would go to the Little Green Store and buy a loaf of bread to feed to the ducks and fish. There was a Big Mouth Bass who's name was Big Mama that lived in the back pond and us kids loved to feed her. We sometimes fished there and that was not allowed so we made sure we never got caught. My sister Tina caught Big Mama once but she was smart enough to let go of the line. We never used fishing hooks all we needed was a big ball of bread, throw a few pieces in and instant fish. The back pond is gone now it has been for quite sometime. There was a big weeping willow tree that stood by the pond and under that tree someone had their beloved dog buried. We always thought that it had to be the owners of the grave yard because it had a tomb stone. I always wonder what happen to the grave maker when they took out the old pond. There was also a big round fountain but I dont ever remember if they ever had it running. Most of my childhood memories focus around the duck pond. We use to play cops and robbers on our bikes, all the roads there are black topped. We even had a secret hide out,. it was behind the the Jesus statue. There was evergreens that had a nice hiding place for us kids. If you were bored just go to the grave yard and there was always something to do. Some times we would just walk around and see if we could find the oldest resident of the cemetery. If we found old flowers we would find graves without and put them on the grave. One memory that I have is it was winter and the pond was frozen over, my dog went out on the ice and fell threw. My best friend Kathy went out on the ice to get him. She slid out on her belly and grab him by his collar and saved his life,We were 7th graders at that time. It did not matter if it was summer, spring, fall or winter we could spend all day over there and to this day I still go back and I take my children there to feed the ducks. My oldest daughter had her prom pictures taken there. It was funny because when her boy friends family ask where we were taken pictures, my daughter told them the cemetery. They thought that we were a little touched. This cemetery is more of a park, it is not only for the departed but also for the living. You see families there all the time feeding the ducks and fish, people ride their bikes, walking and play there. This is were my parents will make their resting place when that time comes. What better place to be laid to rest than the place were you played. If you ever visit my little home town of Bethalto, Illinois stop by Rose Lawn Memory Gardens, better known as the duck pond and don't forget the bread.

Oct. 13th, 2002