So, Grandma's Indian father passed, and was laid to rest
far away from the land of his fathers. I tried to get Great
Uncle to talk about him when he was in his 80's. One day
when visiting, Great Aunt told me that they had come to
believe in eternity, the way the King James teaches...
Great Uncle said "I don't know", and I quickly said, "He
said if you believe". He let it go at that. I played some
songs that I wrote and asked him, could you dance to
that, and he said "yes". Then Great Aunt pointed out he
had gotten him a chew, which meant he was enjoying
the visit and music with kinfolk, in his country home...
At the cemetery after Great Uncle's funeral service, by
the graveside, Burt was troubled because he said he
didn't know if his father had believed. My wife said,
"yes, they told us that day they had". She later told
me about this, that Burt had gotten tears in his eyes.
He had slowly, and respectfully leaned over and kissed
his forehead, as if to say goodbye for the last time.
We went out back to the pond on the property. Where
the man and his two sons lived in happiness on, for
many years after Burt, the last hold out, had closed
shop on his redwood furniture business, and joined
them back home. The kids were laughing, while zip
lining, and cousins sat and talked about goin' out
to the lake noodling (mud cats).
Burt showed and gave a cousin a nice piece
of redwood, uncovering the tarp from one of his
stacks of slabs that he had shipped by rail, then
asked me if I wanted a piece. I liked the first one
that he pulled out, about 23"x 32" he called root
beryl, already sanded on one side, a very nice
piece they had prepped for a clock years ago,
still in perfect condition. They were good
people, but though they are both gone
now, never forgotten. I had always
admired how close they were,
the love and respect
they had...
... LOL! Why do
