Your burial

After seeing some pictures online of Chad Carr's burial, it made me think of your burial. After the funeral, we had the graveside service for the immediate family (which included the Aulisas). After the little ceremony under the tented area, it was going to be a little while until the actual burial, so most everyone decided to leave. I didn't want to leave-I wanted to stay until the end of everything. So, Dad stayed and Hope and Carter. (Dad kept wanting to leave). Grandma Elsie didn't want to leave until Dad did and she rode with Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike, so they all stayed as well. One older guy from the funeral home stayed and the cemetery guy and another guy running the machine thing.
   The machine thing was an old, industrial contraption with a very loud motor. It looked pretty old. I couldn't figure out how it was going to work. They used it to move your box into the vault at that point. While they were doing that, I noticed how the funeral home guy kept wiping off your box, which I thought was very nice and respectful. (I was using the word "casket"' but just changed it to "box"-much better).Anyway, I think they used the contraption to sling your box around and lowered it into the vault. It looked like marbleized plastic, but hopefully it wasn't just plastic. The contraption was like a lifter. (Don't you love my technical terms?) Once your box was in the vault, the lid was placed on it. It had a design on the top of a tree-I think I saw on the funeral invoice that is was called "Aegean Tree of Life." I tried to look that up on Google, but there was no information on it, so it must have just been called that as a design. There was a lovely plaque on the bottom with your name, "Hayden M. Smith" and the dates of your birth and death. It was weird to see your name on it.
   After the box was in the vault, the machine hooked it up and traveled over to your, for lack of a better word, hole. We looked in the hole and it looked kind of cool how perfectly the ground was cut out. They lowered the box in, and then the cemetery guy brought a dump truck over with all the dirt in it. I thought it was nice of them not to have it in plain view of the service under the tented area. They were doing other things, so I walked over to the truck (barefoot-I had taken off my shoes after everyone left) and grabbed a handful of dirt. I don't remember if I asked if it was ok to do it. I probably did ask. I just thought one of us should be the first ones to start the dirt. It was fitting that I did it since I (and God) brought you into this world.
   Anyway, I threw a handful of dirt in there and spread it around. Then Hope and Carter did. I think at that point, they gave Dad a shovel and he put in the first "shovelful". I don't remember if anyone else did. (By the way, Dad kept wanting to leave, but I wanted to stay until everything was done). The dump truck backed up and dumped the load in which was the perfect amount to fill the hole. Then the funeral guy got right in there and started spreading the dirt around and the cemetery guy was panking it down.
  I thought that was about it, like there was just going to be a big mound of dirt for a while, but then the cemetery guy started bringing over little squares of sod that I hadn't noticed were off to the side. I think there were three in a row and I don't know how many long, but it was in the shape of the spot. He picked up each little square with a pitchfork and laid it in place and panked it in with a "panker". I appreciated how methodical he was with each square and how he went back and forth and filled each one in its place. I was also glad there was grass on the top instead of just a sad mound of dirt.
   After that, he placed the box (that's the word I'm using in place of casket) spray of flowers on top and one of the floral arrangements, the one from Rob & Steph since it was in the shape of a heart. Of course, after he was done, I had to go in and "pick", so I rearranged the flowers and pulled off the cross that was part of the arrangement. It had the benediction on it. I then pulled the ribbon off because it was all jacked and pulled some roses off and spread rose petals all over your grave.
   I am so glad I did that. It started the healing process for me. It was like the last event of your life on earth and I didn't want to miss any of it.

Side note:  When we were by the grave, Uncle Mike said, "He was a good boy." And then I said, "That is why God wanted him." Love you sweet boy!