Vacations

As our Panhandle vacation came to a close, I was actually thinking about another vacation. Whenever relatives of a certain age get together, the conversation usually comes around to death and funeral plans. Not in a morbid way, very matter of fact. My granny used to say "When I take my vacation with Jesus, y'all will have a time going through all my junk, so if you see something you want, take it now.", or "I have a list of what I want done when I take my vacation with Jesus."

I hated to hear her talk about it. I love Jesus and all, but I knew if Granny went on vacation with him, she wasn't coming back. But Granny, a woman of great faith, looked forward to that day, and so, when she did take her vacation, we followed her plan, even singing a hymn about taking a vacation with Jesus.

My mom knows that I don't like to talk about this stuff. I am a realist, and I know that one day we will all take our vacations, and Mom and I have discussed the important details, but we choose to live in the present as much as possible. We don't visit lost loved ones at cemeteries, because we believe that the part of those folks we loved and treasured doesn't live there.For some folks, though, a trip to the cemetery is an act of respect, and I get that.

But back to the most recent conversation with the wagon master and the peacock hunter. We passed a lot of cemeteries, both coming and going, and around Madisonville, cousin Judy remembered driving Granny to a cemetery where her first husband (the father of the wagon master and the peacock hunter) was buried, along with a child that Granny lost. Granny married my grandfather, my mom's dad, not long after her first husband was killed in a work accident.

The conversation then turned to cemetery plots, and where who was going to be buried. After a long pause, the peacock hunter asked me what an aura is. I gave the best explanation I could, and of course, asked why she wanted to know.

"Well," said she, "I think I read somewhere that your aura stays with your body for three days after you die. I want to be cremated, but I don't want them to burn up my aura."

We'll add that information to her "vacation plans". The wagon master wants to know where it says anything about auras in the bible, because if it doesn't say anything he doesn't believe it. I promised to research this and get back to him.

I'll let you know what I find out.