Who doesn’t love a good cemetery cache? I know I do. For the most part, cemetery caches seem less likely to be the victims of muggling, and many times the memorial markers are pretty interesting.
In this case, the stone here marks my dad’s grave. He passed away on May 11, 2017 after a brief illness. He was the kind of person who didn’t meet strangers, though by his own admission, he wasn’t always that way. He insisted that he was a shy individual and not very outgoing, however, in the over 40 years that he was a history and social studies (as well as other related subjects) high school teacher, he developed his own way of engaging others in discussion on many topics, not the least of which were ethics, race and other ‘uncomfortable matters’.
When I became interested in geocaching, I talked him into going to a few events, mainly because I knew he was likely to say yes, just so he could meet new people. One of these events was a flash mob in Chesterfield. He stood back and kind of watched us do our thing, getting proof photos taken and such, before we disbursed. When I got back in the car to leave, he asked, ‘Was that it?’ Well, yeah, dad, that’s it.
Another event was one that was held down in Chaffee, Missouri, where dad was raised. As he had few ties left to his hometown (due to his family all having either moved or passed away), he was happy to ride down there to see what was going on. We stopped for breakfast at a dive/truck stop at Ozora, Missouri, because I knew dad would appreciate it. On family trips, mom always hated when he’d want to stop there because the place was little better than a typical ‘greasy spoon’. Afterwards, we arrived in Chaffee and had a great time. Dad got to talk to some cachers who called Chaffee home and I added some smileys to my map.
Occasionally, I talked dad into going to some of the bigger local events, most notably the Winter Potluck. He’d sit around talking with L Frank and Strider among others, enjoying just sitting around and connecting with others. When it was time to go, dad was always appreciative of having the opportunity to just sit and talk. As he aged and his mobility became more limited, he appeared at events less and less, though he did attend the Winter Potluck in 2017. (But as a muggle, he didn’t log it.)
When he became ill later that year, mom made arrangements for the inevitable, and I went with her to help her to plan the details. As we sat in the office at the funeral home, I jokingly mentioned to her that I still had two urns in my home, from when my mother-in-law and husband had passed away in 1998 and 2001, respectively, and that we could always stick them in dad’s casket because then he’d have a ‘captive audience to talk to’. It got mom to laugh, something that she needed.
She didn’t think that the funeral director would approve of such an unorthodox thing, but I asked anyway, and he surprised us by saying that what we proposed was actually not an uncommon request. Of course, being me, I had to take it a step further. I reminded mom that I also had an urn containing my cat, Charlie, and she had two urns, containing her cats, Punkin and Bandit.
She protested at first, but I convinced her by saying that as there were now going to be three people in the box, we should put the three cats in, too, so everybody gets a cat. ‘Besides’, I told her, ‘Dad would appreciate the economy of the situation’. She laughed and had to agree… on the condition I didn’t tell my brother. So, the first thing I did was call my brother. He was perfectly accepting of the idea of adding five urns to dad’s final resting place, because just as I had told mom, ‘he’d appreciate the economy of the situation’. Verbatim.
I also mentioned to mom that I’d like to set up a geocache at the gravesite and argued that dad would also appreciate receiving all the visitors who’d be sure to show up to make the find. This got a bit of an eyeroll from her, but she agreed, as did the funeral director – whose funeral home owns the cemetery where dad’s buried – as well as the cemetery manager – who found it to be an interesting idea. To that end, mom invested in a vase for the plot. This is where you can find the container. Please be sure to put everything back the way you found it. Keeping this cache in the cemetery is contingent on our playing by their rules. The cache needs to be placed back into the vase and the vase must be replaced back in its ‘hidden’ location, upside down in the ground.
Should you find that this cache is in need of attention or repair, please notify me immediately, so I can get out there and tend to it. Access to the cache is restricted to cemetery hours: Dawn to Dusk. Please ensure that you have enough time to get to the cache, sign in, replace it and get back out before the gates are locked.
Permission to place this cache was granted by Larry Dillon, the manager of this property.
Please lift the vase straight up, GENTLY. I came out and performed maintenance on the cache and found the chain had been broken. I repaired it, but do be careful replacing the vase in its place. Make sure the chain is fed in first and that it is not obstructing the vase from resting in its flush position to the ground. Thank you!