Two Woman Tending a Plot
by Fran Miller
My e-mail address is fuzzyone@taconic.net
and I
live in Copake, New york.
I've never known my natural
father's family, only that his father was born in Shenendoah, Pa.
This past Memorial Day we were on our way home from Colorado. We
happened to see an exit for
Shenendoah as we drove up I 81. Knowing I would never get this chance
again, my husband insisted
we stop for a tour of the cemeteries.
We stopped in town to inquire about
the
cemeteries, and were directed up the hill to the polish cemetery. Upon
arriving at the hilltop, we found a very large cemetery, fenced
off into smaller plots. I quickly ran around the first, while my hubby
walked the poor dog.
Upon arriving in the second cemetery I spied
two woman tending a plot. deciding to ask their advice for finding my
family, I approached and asked if they were from that town. Much to my
surprise,
they indicated that they no longer lived there, but had grown up there,
and knew
it's cemeteries very well.
One of the women indicated that she now
lived on Long Island, where I am
originally from. Imagine my shock when she volunteered that she now lived
in the very town I had grown up in.
This while we were at least 4 hours away from that town.
They directed me to the uppermost cemetery, and with that we began our
search in that area. We walked perhaps twenty minutes, and
it seemed apparent that my family was not to be found. I was
almost ready to give it up, then I heard my husband call from the front
of the area.
I ran over, only to find my family-in fact,
my great-grandmother and her husband, in this ancient Polish cemetery
surrounded by graves of my present surname, which is
Miller -- not very Polish!
Was this just coincidence? I think not!
Submitted: Wed May 27 18:47:22 1998
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