Month: June 2017

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A Great Idea for Father’s Day

greenleaf cem new gate (1)Sunday is Father’s Day. Greenleaf Cemetery is doing something a little different. We’ll be having our First Annual Father’s Day Car Show on the cemetery grounds. Nothing says, “Happy Father’s Day” like a family outing to a car show. While you’re here, you can celebrate the memory of the dads, granddads, and uncles you’ve loved.

Greenleaf Cemetery is made up of about a hundred acres of land, with a quarter of that not plotted for burials. We have plenty of room, without the worry of being disrespectful to those who rest here.

I have learned, in the research I’ve done since beginning as Greenleaf Office Manager, that the first parks were actually offshoots of cemeteries. Our cemetery is not only for the dead, but also for the living. We should celebrate the lives of those we love, both the living and the dead.

While you’re here, you might want to walk over to the old section and stroll through. It is full of history and art.

The Car Show will be from 1pm to 3pm on Sunday, so come out and have fun. There is no entry fee, either to bring a car to show, or to just come to look.

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Introducing Myself

This is my first blog post for Greenleaf Cemetery, so I want to introduce myself. My name is Freda Day, and I’m the new Office Manager. In my childhood, I was an Air Force brat, so we moved often. The Brownwood/Bangs area was home for my family, and we moved back here when I was a young teenager.

I’m pushing sixty now, and so, needless to say, most of the members of the generations of my family that came before me have passed. My dad is buried two hundred feet from my office. His parents are with him in the family plot that his father purchased in the 1920s. I have an aunt and two uncles, three great aunts and five great uncles, a great-grandfather and great-grandmother here at Greenleaf also. Everyday is like a family reunion coming to work.

I’ve been told since I took this job a couple of months ago that “family reunion” is kind of a weird way to look at working at Greenleaf Cemetery, but I disagree. When I see the memorial stones of these family members, it isn’t grief I feel, it’s the love that I felt for a lifetime.

I remember my Uncle James taking my siblings and cousins to the trash dump in Bangs. We would haul out the most amazing things (or appalling, if you listen to my mother). I remember being a small child seeing the sights in Europe, and being terrified of heights. My memories of the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa involve being carried up the steps and looking over the edge from high up, but feeling safe because I was in the arms of my dad.

I don’t see our cemetery only as a place of grief, but also as a place of love and remembrance. I am honored to be working at this beautiful and historic cemetery.