sleepy hollow, new york. may 2011.
i was walking around this famous cemetery the day after my friend got married, taking pictures and looking at gravestones (and noticing how many had my last name) when i decided to call my mom and ask where my grandma was buried, as i knew it was somewhere in new york state. turns out she was five miles away. so my friend agreed to drive me over there in the morning, on the way to the train station.
we got lost twice, thanks to my crappy phone map app. as we were driving towards our last turn, we saw an entrance into the cemetery and turned in. once we found the office, i scoured the log book (because their computer system was down) but found nothing. turns out we were in the wrong cemetery--there are two next door to each other. time was tight but we tried to get to the other one, except that the road we needed to turn on was closed. it's like i wasn't meant to see her.
after a day of thinking i would get to visit, i suddenly realized how sad i was to miss her. so close! so many things i wanted to say, so many minutes i wanted to sit and simply remember her. so i looked out the window, said hello and goodbye and blew a kiss, and then we drove on to the train station. where i saved a two foot long snapping turtle from likely-death by jumping down on the tracks and moving it off, then getting some helpful ladies and my friend to help lift me back onto the platform. so maybe that was my purpose for the day.
grandma, maybe you were that turtle, or maybe i was just given the chance to do something for which i know you'd be proud of me. either way, i remember you, and i miss you.
