Cemetery flowers spur great childhood memory

There is nothing more beautiful while cruising the countryside than to come across a cemetery filled with real flowers.
That happened to me last week as I ventured around rural Steele County and ended up at Zion Lutheran Church. The cemetery is located next to the church in Lemond Township, north of Ellendale.
Church members have placed 59 red geraniums around the cemetery for the entire summer. This is a marvelous undertaking by the church to honor those who have gone on before us.
As I listened to the church members share about their project, I couldn’t help but remember back to my childhood. One of the greatest memories of my grandfather was planting flowers at his wife’s gravestone at a small country church in McLeod County. She died in 1955 at a very young age following a short illness (strep throat).
My grandpa would always pick me up and bring me along to the cemetery to plant real flowers. Unlike the perpetual care offered by Zion throughout the summer, my grandpa would have to transport buckets of water a couple of times a week to keep the flowers alive.
Flowers always bring beauty and peace to the cemetery.
He always took great pride in planting flowers at the gravesite. And for me, it taught me the importance of remembering loved ones who are no longer with us.
Sadly, I confess I have not been very good with carrying through on my grandpa’s legacy of planting real flowers, though I’m not even sure if they are allowed in the cemetery any longer—at least the way he did them. It seems like time and distance get in the way of perhaps things that should matter more than anything.
But I hope my grandpa is looking down at me and realizes that I have never forgotten about remembering loved ones, including him. I think about him often and the values he instilled in me. I have always marveled at what he accomplished, especially as a single parent raising a 2 year old. He never remarried. He was a champion for getting things done while suffering great physical barriers. He had a heart of gold.
I try to visit the cemetery at least once a year. I actually did this last Friday night. Much to my surprise, my mother had already placed some flowers at the grave.
It warms my heart to see what the church members are doing out at Zion. In Zion’s case, they are carrying through on what Jerry Karaus started six years ago. Last July, the flowers Karaus helped bring to the cemetery surrounded him during his memorial service.
“It was like a Jerry Day with all the flowers,” one member said. “It was a nice tribute to him.”
Roxanne Underwood even has recruited four of her grandchildren to help with the care throughout the summer. To see kids helping their grandparents without a phone or screen glued to their hand is a big bonus.
As one of the church members related to me as I left the cemetery last week, “It’s just so peaceful.”
And I might add beautiful on top of it.
I hope you will consider going in hot pursuit of honoring your loved ones in this profound way.