A Radio Listener Helped Us Save This Montana Gravesite
When is the last time that you visited a cemetery? It's been about two years for me but that's only because my dad was buried in one.
There are some amazing things that you can learn there. Many of the gravestones have a little history on them like military service, years they lived, family information, sometimes even how they died, etc.
I remember years ago when my son Jake and I were driving by the old cemetery on our road and we noticed an old metal cross that was shot up.
We stopped and looked at it and I told him we have to get this grave a new cross. It was the grave of a nine-year-old girl that died from a rattlesnake bite. I can't quite remember the dates but it was around 1919 when she died. We learned that from the headstone that was still there and readable.
Someone who heard me talking on the air about it volunteered to make us a nice white wooden cross like they use at military cemeteries. Made out of wood with a heavy coat of weather-resistant paint and a pointed end, we placed it over her grave about 22 years ago. It's still there, a little worn and weathered, but still there with no holes in it.
I think about that story all the time that I drive by it and what it must have been like to live back in those Homesteader days when things were so tough. I also think about what kind of person would stop and shoot grave markers and how I wish I could put them two spaces down from hers...
See ya tomorrow at 5 a.m.