Going to the Cemetery! - Gone but not forgotten?

Mid October, I went to Bethel Methodist Church near Detroit, Pike County, Illinois.  As I said before in my blog, this was the first time I went inside but it was not the first time I visited the cemetery that surrounds the church.  I have been several times in the last 5 years.  Before that day in October, I had been there exactly 5 times...every Memorial Day.

I recall in Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's book "Honoring Our Ancestors", Jodi L. Severson contributed a store called "My Mother's Example".  Jodi tells of her mother's tradition on Memorial Day weekend of traveling to the cemeteries of her deceased family members.  While I don't talk to my deceased relatives at the cemetery, I do bring flowers and decorations for their plots.

My own tradition started 5 years ago before my mother past away.  She loved that I was researching her family and always wanted to know what new I had learned.  My mother developed dementia over the last few years of her life but she always remembered our trips to the cemeteries to Honor the Ancestors.  The year she passed away I probably went in remembrance of our trips together but last year was more of a remembrance of all my ancestors and for me.

While at the Cemetery in October, I noticed that there were only a few flowers on the graves in the older section of the cemetery.  The only ones I noticed were ones I knew I had placed there.  I commented on this to my husband and he looked around but didn't see any others. 

I have posted memorials to my ancestors on Find A Grave which leaves a digital record of their burial and tombstone.  But for me, there is just more meaning in seeing the sites in person.  I understand not everyone can be near their ancestor's resting places.  It's walking on ground they walked on.  It's walking next to where they rest.

So I wonder when I am gone who will Honor our Ancestors. Who do I inspire to carry on the tradition for my family? Or will they become like the rest of these stones unadorned and unvisited?  Until the next genealogist comes along.