Thank you in advance for visiting my sister, my mother, and my father-in-law. I am so grateful to everyone that leaves flowers for them.

I was born and raised in Norfolk, VA. I've also lived in FL, NY, CA, MO, WA, and OR. The Navy is the reason for some of the moves.

I found Find A Grave by accident. It used to be one of my favorite sites to visit before all their changes. And when Ancestry starts charging for FAG, I am done.

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This is a poem that I stumbled upon (author unknown):
Always a silent hurt, many a silent tear,
but always a beautiful memory of one we loved so dear.
God gave us strength to bear it, and courage to take the blow,
but what it meant to lose you...no one will ever know.
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"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

"Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)
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"Strangers in the Box" By Pamela A. Harazim

Come, look with me inside this drawer, In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white, Faces proud, still, serene.
I wish I knew the people, These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories Are lost among my socks.
I wonder what their lives were like. How did they spend their days? What about their special times? I'll never know their ways.
If only someone had taken time To tell who, what, where, when,
These faces of my heritage, Would come to life again.
Could this become the fate Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories Someday to be tossed away?
Make time to save your pictures, Seize the opportunity when it knocks, Or someday you and yours could be The strangers in the box.
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If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row,
There might be some of them, perhaps,
You wouldn't want to know.
But, here's another question, which
Requires another view,
If you could meet your ancestors,
Would they be proud of you?

---Arkansas Parent-Teacher