Grandpa's last ride

Posted by my mom.  Had to share this story...

The family went to Smart Cemetery, where all the Salchow's are buried, to lay dad to rest Thursday afternoon at 2 PM.  When we got there, I walked into the cemetery to see the place were he was to be buried, and since it was dad's wishes to be cremated, it wasn't a large opening, but I immediately thought, "I don't think that's the right place", as my brother Dean, and his wife want to be buried there also, on the 2 vacant spots next to our parents.  When the rest of the people came to the site, I told my brother I didn't think that was the right spot and he agreed.  After a conversation with the funeral director, who had dug the grave, we decided to go on with the simple service, with my pastor reading a few verses from the Bible and praying.  I then told the people there that because the grave was not in the right spot, we would put off the actual burial until later.  

On the next Monday, my brother and his wife, my stepbrother, and Charley and I met at the cemetery again.  The funeral director, who lives a short distance away and has a small Kubota tractor to dig the grave with, had not arrived yet.  I walked down to the gravesite, once again, but only the same small hole is there.  With tribulation, I go back and tell them that its the same grave, but not to worry, as we can hear the tractor coming down the road.  Its amazing how God works sometimes, because in drives the funeral director, on his little tractor, with dad's urn sitting on the seat with him.  Dad got to take one "last tractor ride".  The old farmer was smiling and rejoicing in Heaven.  The rest of the burial went smoothly, with the grave being dug, dad nestled into the hole, and covered up with shovels full of dirt by his son and his son-in-law.

One side moment, my brother, as he shoveled in the other grave site, the one that will be his burial site, says, "you know, most people don't get to fill in their own grave", and I would think he's the first.