A Trip to the Cemetery
18 July 1998
Bluff City Cemetery
Elgin, Illinois
When I began actively researching my Fletcher ancestors in early 1998, the only information I had about
my gggrandparents was that their names were Rachel Loveless and John Fletcher. I had been on a Pommeranian genealogy mailing list researching the Eggert name and happened to see that one of the posts to the mailing list was signed by a research librarian at the Gail Borden Library in Elgin, Kane County, Illinois. I knew that my grandfather, Benjamin Butler Fletcher, had been born in Elgin, so I decided to contact the Elgin Library researcher, Bill Blohm. He was very helpful with my few questions, and since I was planning a visit to my parents in Downers Grove, Illinois, decided to make an
appointment with Bill at the Elgin Library. Here is what happened...
I had never been to the Gail Borden Library in Elgin, but found it without a wrong turn and arrived at the doorstep at the exact time of my appointment with Bill Blohm. This was no small accomplishment considering it had been a 45 minute drive from my parents' home! Bill gave me more info on Rachel
and John, including photo copies of death notices from the newspapers. Bill had even gone out to the cemetery (on another mission, according to him) and found the burial sites and marked the area on a map! What a blessing this man is!
After doing some research at the library, I headed out to the cemetery.
It was sunny and extremely hot and humid and I was tired, but the
vision of this huge cemetery on a hill refreshed me (so, I have a strange
sense of perspective ). I drove around the cemetery, just to get an idea
of how big it was (big!), then headed for the general area Bill had marked
for me on the map. I looked for some shade to park the car, and got out...
...heading toward the left along the first row of graves. I got near the end of that row and decided to head back along the next row, always looking down as these were all mostly ground level markers. I was getting hot and discouraged as I turned toward the third row back, walked a ways, then stopped. There it was, right in front of me: FLETCHER.
It was a huge monument, at least 5 feet high and almost as wide. How could I have missed it?!!! I looked back toward where I had parked the car....it was in a direct line with the monument. Right in front of it.
Chills went through me on that hot, hot day. I felt as though I had been led there by Divine Guidance...
and perhaps a few angels.
copyright 1998-2000 by Bonnie Fletcher Eggert
"I've never been afraid of ghosts. I live with them daily, after all. When I look in a mirror, my mother's eyes look back at me, my mouth curls with the smile that lured my great grandfather to the fate that was me. We look in the mirror and see the shades of other faces looking back through the years, we see the shape of memory, standing solid in an empty doorway. How could I be afraid of those that molded my flesh, leaving the remnants to live long past the grave? Still less could I be afraid of those ghosts who touch my thoughts in passing. Look back, hold a torch to light the recesses of the dark. Listen to the footsteps that echo behind when you walk alone."
[ From...."Drums of Autumn", by Diana Gabaldon]
Dear Ancestor
Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished, marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.
--Author Unknown