Thinking of You - Memorial Day

Entrance to Placerville Union Cemetery with a sign reading 'Placerville Union Cemetery EST 1871' under a partly cloudy sky.

Every year, I think, “Happy Memorial Day!” However, the day is hardly a happy one ~ rather it is really quite somber in feel ~ as we remember those fallen in war. This year, during my travels west, I took the opportunity to visit Placerville Union Cemetery in Northern California. I went to find my first fiancé and his father and mother up in their final resting places amidst the quietude of fallen soldiers…

Full view — **National Infantry Museum** on **Facebook**

Map of Placerville Union Cemetery showing various sections and grave plots with a marked location 'You Are Here'.

Two people reading an informational sign titled 'The Arch Makers' at a roadside, with trees and a street visible in the background.

Two people engaged in conversation near a sign, with one person gesturing and the other listening attentively.

A group selfie featuring three smiling individuals: a man with a beard and glasses, a woman with long hair, and another woman wearing a T-shirt with a floral design. In the background, there are decorative masks and items, adding a cozy atmosphere.

While walking around with my deaf brother Frank and his deaf-blind roommate Cynthia, we found a portion of the cemetery dedicated mostly to WWI fallen soldiers. The above photo was taken at their apartment.

Love our parents’ old wooden masks which our father started collecting when we lived in Hawaii.

A smiling man wearing a light-colored shirt, seated at a table, with a soft-focus background.

I have shared my family before and here is a photo of a photograph Frank had hanging on his apartment wall. I tried to remember to get better photographs than the ones I had previously off Frank’s FaceTime post a few years ago, lol! 😉

Our father Gene during the 1970s when he was roughly 40 years old. One of our cousins shares a Memorial Day and Veterans Day message each year and he always remembers our father for Veterans Day.

Grave marker for Charles A. Watton, dated 1891, with a descriptive plaque nearby outlining his role as a stagecoach driver and proprietor of Strawberry Station.

A little history of Placerville

So, we toured around Placerville for a bit, then drove over to find this cemetery.

It has been probably 20 years since I have been here. I may have come before with my kids once when they were small when I would come up to visit Belle, my first fiancé Charlie’s mother. She really liked Charles’ and my children, and by extension, I was trying to share our children as grandchildren with her. Yes, it is odd that I married someone with the same name, though I have met other people who did exactly the same; strange how that happens! Charles and Charlie are and were quite different people, but both were athletes ~ the only other commonality.

Placerville Union Cemetery is the largest of the three cemeteries in Placerville, California, and is one of the towns you can visit along Highway 49. It is one of the largest stops along the Gold Rush trail in Northern California.

An overgrown cemetery surrounded by a chain-link fence, featuring several white gravestones and a red fire hydrant in the foreground, with green trees and a blue sky in the background. — A very small cemetery over on Myrtle Street, Placerville, California, that we drove by afterwards.

From Placerville, it’s an easy 9 mile drive down twisting, switchback roads to Coloma, if you’s like to see where the first big commercial gold discovery was found by early pioneers in 1848 at John Sutter’s Mill.

A wooden mining structure with a slanted roof, elevated on wooden supports, featuring several long beams and platforms, surrounded by trees and a pathway. — **Sutter’s Mill (1968-2014)** – now rebuilt yet again, but this is the way I remember it; from **Wikipedia**.

Fun Fact: Those gold miners were called ’49ers because so many people crossed the United States in wagon-droves during 1849 to try their hand at finding the ever-elusive gold (for our friends who may not know this part of the United States’ history).

Entrance to Placerville Union Cemetery with an arched sign and a clear blue sky.

Placerville was one of the largest towns which sprung up during that gold fever migration. Plenty of people from that time period stayed in California and became first-settlers in Placerville. Many are buried here in the older section of this cemetery.

Placerville’s own

A hillside cemetery with numerous gravestones and a U.S. flag waving in the background, surrounded by trees and blue sky.

As we walked up and down these hills, at the bottom of this one hill I found a section of mostly World War I soldiers who died overseas but were brought home after the war. Some stones share the lives of other former soldiers who by grace grew old and whose families honored those loved one’s military service and which wars they fought in upon their gravestones. Many lived out their lives here in this quaint pioneering city enjoying relative peace after the horrors encountered in battle. I did see a few Civil War veterans’ gravestones, too.

Quiet beauty beneath strong oaks and pines sheltering them for all eternity…

A historical plaque explaining the United Ancient Order of Druids, detailing its origins, beliefs, and evolution. It mentions the organization’s activities, including honoring Frederick Sieg and its support for Save the Graves in Placerville, California.

A cemetery scene featuring a tall monument surrounded by gravestones, with a descriptive sign in the foreground.

A close-up of a historic gravestone in a cemetery, featuring a tall monument with a decorative top. The stone commemorates W.C. Jones, who died in action on August 4, 1903, at the age of 24. The base includes engravings and text referring to his service.

Ever since Charlie died May 25th, 1983 and was buried a week or so later, I found that cemeteries, which I had previously thought were scary, weren’t scary places anymore. I found that they were really quite serene.

I hope you find them that way, too.

A scenic view of a cemetery with various gravestones, grassy areas, and trees under a blue sky with white clouds.

Places of reflection. Places of honor.

A gravestone marked 'LANGLOIS' with the names 'GEORGE 1854' and 'GLADYS M. 1868 1941' engraved on it, surrounded by grass and soil.

And perfect for sharing here on Memorial Day. 🙂

A close-up view of a dense thicket with green foliage and flowering plants growing near a weathered chain-link fence.

A fallen tree leaning against a fence, surrounded by dense greenery and bushes.

Much of the cemetery I found is overgrown with weeds which are just being cut down for the season. This area above is wild shrubbery just outside a corner boundary of the cemetery, but I thought I’d share what grows in this forested area of Northern California at 2500 ft. elevation.

A serene cemetery landscape with overgrown grass, scattered gravestones, and a large tree in the background, under a clear blue sky.

We never did find the graves I was looking for, but we enjoyed just walking around, noticing beautiful headstones and flat markers.

My guess is that somewhere out there in this field above are the family graves for which I was searching. Weeds and the thought of western diamondback rattlesnakes kept us out of this area and from searching further.

A view of a grassy area with scattered gravestones, surrounded by trees and blue skies.

I do remember that the area was flat and their burial plot was near a tree, which I thought Charlie would have liked. He was born and died in this place and it is fitting for me to share a little about him along with these soldiers today. He wasn’t even 21 ~ much like many of these young soldiers.

A peaceful cemetery scene featuring weathered gravestones amidst tall green grass and trees under a clear blue sky.

43 years on, the terrible hurt is gone and only happy memories remain. Whenever I leave a message after someone posts that they have lost a loved one, human or animal, I always write that I hope they have “only happy memories…”

A grassy area with bright yellow flowers in the foreground and a stone grave marker partially visible in the background among trees. — Golden California poppies growing for the war fallen…

A peaceful cemetery scene featuring gravestones on a grassy hillside, with a United States flag flying in the foreground against a blue sky.

Back in the Veterans’ section, I snapped these few pictures, for me “keeping these young men’s names alive” with my photography.

Grave marker for Charles W. DeLameter, California, Sergeant in the BENGA, born April 6, 1888, died May 6, 1946, surrounded by other gravestones in a cemetery.

A cemetery scene featuring several gravestones arranged on a grassy hillside under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Please enlarge these photos so you can help remember these young men, and now women, who rest here. Would you? Thank you…

Gravestone of George Sommer, a Civil War veteran from Germany, with the date of death February 3, 1923, in a cemetery setting with a flag and visitors in the background.

What is that saying?

A metal statue of a soldier standing beside a gravestone marked 'Jack J. Fairbanks, Aug. 11, 1931' in a cemetery setting.

The one where if you utter someone’s name that they never really die?

To me, it is very important to remember those who have died for our country’s freedoms. So many people throughout the world do not have the freedom to travel, to say and think what they’d like, or to even have enough to eat, everyday.

A white wrought iron chair placed near a gravestone in a grassy cemetery, surrounded by other gravestones and trees under a cloudy sky.

We do. We are truly a blessed country… <3

This weekend, Charles and I watched a couple of movies fitting for this Memorial Day weekend:

1917 [DVD]

Joyeux Noel [DVD] [2006]

Both found on Amazon.com (not sponsored). If you haven’t watched these two movies, they are very well done and I highly recommend for their visual and emotional portrayal of WWI life and actual battles fought.