Willow Grove Cemetery

Willow Grove Cemetery 2013

The Willow Grove Cemetery is one of my favorite places on earth - And I mean that literally.  I spend a lot of time there as it is in the middle of the locations that I have to travel to for work and I often park there to take short naps or just to rest.  Many people find my fascination with cemeteries odd (creepy more like it) but they really are a peaceful place if you are not superstitious (which I am not) and Willow Grove is the most peaceful in my experience.

At each cemetery that we visit I ask the boy what he likes best about that particular one and he actually said to me (and I am not exaggerating at all here) he said that he really liked this one because he thought it would be a good place to "take a nap".

Willow Grove Cemetery 2013

Willow Grove has two sections in it: The front and the rear.  The rear section is the newer section and it is accessed at the rear over an old bridge crossing a drainage creek.  In my many times resting here I have seen deer, wild turkey, gophers, squirrels, and a few other things that I cannot recall at this moment walking along this ditch.  In June there is a very nice section that has wild strawberries growing on it, we missed it this year but we can't wait to get there next year.  And yeah, we don't have a problem eating wild strawberries - Even if it grows on someone's grave. :-o

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The boy is pictured standing on a very old section on the concrete edge of a family plot.  It is built into a small hill which gives it a little bit of a majestic feeling.

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Here he was resting in the shade sitting on the concrete edge of another old family plot.

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However, the rest was short lived as he found a stick and a branch that begged to be fussed with.  There is always something fun to do when you are only seven. ;-)

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There were plenty of old grave markers to see and take a look at but the boy is most fascinated with the markers that need discovering.

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While Willow Grove does not have a mausoleum it does have plenty of character as well as much to discover. 

While I do not have a picture of it, there is a section with little stones that have just a name and a single date on each.  There are quite a few of them and lie in no real particular order.  When we went through this section I asked him if he knew what they were.  He thought for a minute and said to me "They're babies."  

We talked about how many babies only survive a few hours out of mommy's tummy, how some are born dead, and still how others live only a few months.  I am impressed with his thoughtfulness as we consider the miracle of our lives and the fact that we were the ones who lived.

If you are ever in Armada and feel the need for a nap, we suggest getting over to the Willow Creek Cemetery - there's room for you.  But all we ask is that you keep your hands off the wild strawberries.

Bates Cemetery

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I had driven past this little cemetery hundreds if not thousands of times through the course of my life but never once had I a reason to visit it.  So when the day came that The Boy and I were to visit I was really looking forward to it.

And low and behold look who we found!

Yes my friends, it is John Bates' wife.

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Ok, so this is Nancy and not Anna but still, it was John Bates' wife's grave. 

Anywho, Bates is the namesake of this Cemetery so I found it interesting.

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This cemetery was surrounded by Lilac trees/bushes and it was June!  The whole place smelled terrific and all the rain that we had this spring made the place green and lush.

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There were interesting monuments to honor those who are buried here.

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The Boy was very interested in the monuments with the flags.  Somewhere he really learned to honor the stones with them as he had learned that they were veterans that had served our country. I know that he does not yet understand the concepts of freedom, duty, and honor but somehow he has an innate gut feeling about how to respect these ideas.  He saw the flag laying on the ground next to the stone above and knelt down to fix it, then he saluted it all on his own.

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Our goal was to look for the mausoleum in each cemetery that we visit but the Bates' Cemetery did not have one. 

We were also looking for the most interesting aspect of each cemetery and The Boy really liked the hidden grave markers in the overgrowth.

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He enjoyed crawling through the brush in order to locate and view the hidden stones.

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After the many hundreds of times that I have passed by this little place, I am glad that we spent a few minutes to explore it - Out in this country feel setting with its hidden gems.

Hart Cemetery

The Hart Cemetery sits among a bunch of homes that was built in the early 2000's late 1990's just North of 24 Mile Road on Chesterfield Road.  The cemetery is old and has a lot of broken grave stones that have been bleached white from the sun

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The only thing that seemed to distinguish this cemetery from all the rest is its location.  Its existence feels a bit like an accident.  Almost as though it is not welcome and would have been tossed away if the developer of the surrounding homes could have done so.

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The grave stones were big and dwarfed the boy which gave it a magical feel even though there were no mausoleums, note-worthy statues, or Gothic open tombs.

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So if you ever make it out to the Hart Cemetery be sure to tell them that you heard about them from Necropolis Quest Macomb.

St. Mary's Cemetery

 This is the St. Mary's Cemetery and it is basically across the street from the Oakwood Cemetery.

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This is an open mausoleum and it was under construction when we visited.  We will have to revisit this site to see the new set-up. 

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This cemetery was very interesting.  Many of the stones had these flip up lids (pictured above) that revealed a picture of the person buried there (pictured below).

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This stone was for a young man and young woman whom I believed were engaged to be married.  I think they were killed together (I assume a car accident) and they were buried together.  Each person was pictured in a little flip case as well.

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Of course their was a large crucifix displayed signifying that this was a Roman Catholic cemetery.

Oakwood Cemetery

The Oakwood Cemetery is one that we have always seen from the park that we go to.  As is the case with most of the cemeteries in Macomb County, we have had no reason to visit this one before.  However now because of our quest we had a reason.

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While there was not a mausoleum in this cemetery there was this little chapel where they have a simple internment service.  It was a cute little building and we especially liked the wrap around porch.

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While is tough to see the boy he is out there among the head stones.

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 Here is the boy seated at a quiet place for reflection - And he is reflecting (or resting his legs).

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We took a picture of the boy by the tallest monument in the cemetery with the Blue Water Tower in the background near 24 mile road and Baker in New Baltimore.

We've been having fun looking at all the monuments but there was nothing real exciting at this cemetery.  I guess we would say the little chapel was the most interesting thing here.  I think we both would like to make a fort out of it. ;-)

Memphis Cemetery

 Number four on our quest to visit Macomb County cemeteries was the Memphis cemetery.  This one is pretty near and dear to my heart as I grew up in Memphis during my teen years.  I know many of the people who are buried here and I am related to many as well.  

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This cemetery has some pretty fun stones that are old and large.

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Many are broken and propped up so that they can still be recognized.  Really, they are propped up so the mower does not get damaged but hey, the recognition factor is sound more meaningful doesn't it?

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This grave marker has been in this cemetery since before my time.  It is a smooth marble ball and we used to come touch it at night as kids supposing that it was a haunted artifact that glowed green in the moonlight.  I had many walks to the cemetery at night but never did I see it glow green or anything for that matter.  This is by far the coolest marker in this cemetery but I could be biased with nostalgia. 

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Here is the mausoleum.  Nothing particularly fun or interesting about it but it is all part of our quest to recognize it all the same.

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What cemetery does not have cool veteran markers on their graves?  Actually, a lot do not.  These are always fun grave markers because they illicit conversations with my boy that I otherwise would not have had about war, honor, and the freedom that we enjoy as American's. 

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The Memphis Cemetery is quite large with many stones to see.  This was a nice fall afternoon with the sounds of bustling leaves and the wind whistling through the tree tops.

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I am always mindful to remind the boy not to touch the markers (especially these tall ones) as I had heard recently about a boy that was crushed to death when a tombstone fell over on him.

I failed to get pictures of tombstones of many family members and friends but we did spend quite a bit of time visiting them - Much (I am sure) to my boy's complete boredom. ;-)

Richmond Cemetery

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The Richmond cemetery is old and there are a lot of people buried here.  However there is nothing that makes it stand out as a particularly interesting cemetery.  It has some nice monuments but the part that really makes this interesting to us is that many people from our family are buried here.  The picture above my boy is with my grandfather from my mother's side.  You cannot see it but behind the boy is his great-grandma's stone.  She is still with us and I am thrilled that he has had the honor of knowing his great-grandmother and is going to remember "Grammy" as he grows old.

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 This is a wider view of the family's plot.  Buried here is my grandpa who passed in 1993, his and 'Grammy's' son who passed as a result of too much anesthesia during a surgery when he was just 6 years old, my great-grandparents, and buried at the foot of grandpa's plot is the remains of my second-cousin-once-removed (?Grandpa's sister's child?) who was killed as a result of a drunk driving accident while she was in her 20's. 

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And so during our our quest me and the boy continue to explore the various mausoleums and this was nice with little marble benches around the perimeter but it still did not hold a candle to the coolness of the Centennial Cemetery.

St. Michael's Cemetery

St. Michael's Cemetery...

St. Michael's Cemetery

This was our second cemetery to visit on our quest.  Officially this is an Adair cemetery but it is located in Richmond by the McDonald's.

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St. Michael's Cemetery is associated with the Catholic church in Richmond so the Christian monument is prominently positioned.

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Our quest is to find the most interesting thing in or facet about each cemetery that we visit.  Abovr my boy stands next to a tombstone that is about 5 ft by 3 ft etched with a long script and a guitar drawn on the black rock.

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Since the Centennial Cemetery really wowed us with it's mausoleum we made it a point visit all the other mausoleums on our quest.

This cemetery was not a cemetery that wowed us but having grown up in the Richmond area there were a lot of surnames that I recognized.

Centennial Cemetery

So the very first cemetery my boy and I went to was the cemetery in New Haven, MI.  We went there because it would be quiet and we could play a game of chess in peace.

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You can see him pictured here with our travel chess set in front of him.

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There were some very nice headstones and there was woods around us.  One of the things that was kind of fun was that a tree top fell as we were right there.  I can't say anything about if we had not been there but it did make a noise to my son's delight.

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But the most interesting part of our visit was the mausoleum.  It is made with rocks and has three gated doors.  The doors are pushed and open to see in but the gates are chained keeping the public out.  It would be very kind of spooky at twilight but during the day it was just fine.

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The mausoleum is built into the side of a hill with steps up the side allowing the public to access the top of the building.  My boy climb the steps and stood on the top for the picture below.

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This was a very fun cemetery and we decided that we should visit a different cemetery every month for our guy time.  We came up with two goals: The first was to visit every cemetery in Macomb county (our county) and the second was to decide what makes each cemetery interesting.

With that our quest was on and now we are off to visit all the necropolises in Macomb.

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