Special Delivery

My grandparents, Joe and Sallie Smith, lived on a farm in Union Hall. Here's how they looked when they were first married in 1903—a year before my father was born.

Before my grandparents moved onto the farm, it had belonged to William Bernard and his wife Gillie Ann. William might have built the cabin in the early 1850s, or possibly one of his relatives did. When Gillie Ann died in 1897 at the age of 58, she was buried up on the hillside.

William cut a little window in the wall of the log cabin (now covered with clapboards) so he could sit by the fire and look at her grave.

When William died 10 years later, he was buried beside her. A plain stone marked his grave.  My grandparents bought the farm in 1906.

In 1952, Joe received a letter from West Virginia: 

Obviously the stone was delivered and placed. It's been there for 62 years.

But the old stones weren't removed.

They, along with William and Gillie Ann, rest on the hill.

~

Note: Two other posts on this blog are about this graveyard: https://peevishpen.blogspot.com/2011/11/vines-stones.html and https://peevishpen.blogspot.com/2017/04/lilacs-and-connections.html

Tombstone Updates

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 14 UP-DATE: The story of my pilfered tombstone spreads across the USA (Well, halfway)! The Dwyer & Michaels radio show in Iowa (Stations KNRA & WXLP; online at www.2dorks.com) wants to interview me. Listen online at 8 a.m. (or thereabouts) Thursday!

~~~

It's still missing. (Thanks to the many faithful blog readers who have called or emailed.) I didn't think my tombstone would return of its own accord.

Mike Allen's story about it made the front page of the Virginia section of today's Roanoke Times. [UPDATE: The Associated Press picked up the story. A story also ran in the  Franklin-News Post.]

I'll update this post periodically today if I hear anything. Right now, we assume it's just one in a long series of harassment by some of the local rednecks. (A summary of their harassment is here.) Or, possibly, the theft is related to the warrants I filed last week.

Time will tell. Or possibly the reward I'm offering will motivate one of the thief's buddies to tell: $500 for information leading to arrest and conviction of person responsible.

Stay tuned.

Edited to add: Was interviewed by phone by Q-99.]

~

Rest in Peace? No Way!

Sometime between Saturday morning and this morning my tombstone went missing from the family cemetery on Standiford Road in Union Hall.

I don’t think it left of its own accord, so it’s not wandering around loose or anything. From tracks that the investigating officer found, it appears that someone hauled it out of the cemetery on a cart.

I bought that tombstone in 2005 when Rhonda was running a special down at Add-A-Touch Monuments. I’d looked through a whole bunch of designs before I selected the grape-leaf design, which I thought look kind of festive. It was delivered on December 14, the same day I bought Maggie.

Why did I buy my own tombstone? A couple of reasons. For one, I was being harassed by some of the local rednecks and didn’t know whether I’d survive the 2005 hunting season. (The harassment increases during deer season when they roam in mobs and carry guns. Update: I've blogged many times in the past about the harassment, but a summary is here. ) Second, I don’t have kids. Who would pick out a stone for me when I’m gone? (John has lousy taste.) Third, I wanted to mark my place in the family cemetery. Finally, it was on special—I saved 5%.

Here’s what it looked like before this weekend:


Here’s what it looks like now:

The thieves even took the pillar it was on!

Anyhow, if you happen to see my missing tombstone, give me a call. I’m offering a reward for its safe return and another reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever took it.

I won’t rest in peace until it's returned.

~

Updates: Interestingly, my tombstone went missing a week after I'd filed charges against a local boy who'd barely missed hitting my truck head-on while he was speeding his ATV on a public road. We'd been harassed by this kid and his father (see "Tribulations and the Trial") on many previous occasions.

Before long, a couple of blogs appeared denouncing me. The same day the stone went missing, this one appeared. Two days later, the same person posted another blog. His brother, who was in the landscaping/hardscaping business, hi-jacked an Internet radio show I was on a week later and started his own blog with this post. (The whole blog, which ran for a few months, is here.)

A post about the radio show is "What the World Knows Now" posted on November 15, 2007. Another tombstone related post is "A Little Help from my Friends" on November 16, 2007.

In 2012, I bought a replacement tombstone. The original was never returned. Roanoke Times Columnist Dan  Casey wrote a story about it:  "Now She Can Rest in Peace"  which requires a R-T subscription to read.  I blogged about it in "Shopping."      

~