Spent the morning visiting the incredible Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills. It was very moving to me, learning about the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who began the work, knowing he’d never see it completed in his lifetime. His family continues the work and the preservation. It’s a wonderful place to visit.
I also did another Mount Rushmore drive-by, and marveled at the imagination of people who can see something living in the granite.
#CrazyHorseMemorial #MountRushmore
Said goodbye yesterday to my brother Patrick and his wife Dianne, saying goodbye today to my sister Betty Lynn and Cathy. Now I'm alone again as I continue on my road north (by northwest.) We honored my parents, our history, and the ancestors very well, I think.
After lunch, we went to Greenhill Cemetery in Lemmon to visit the graves of our beloved grandparents Norman Buckley and Eva Myrtle Smith Buckley, as well as our maternal great-grandparents Elmira and Andrew Smith. Then we drove way out into the country to Sholass Cemetery, on the banks of the Grand River, to visit our Irish ancestors and paternal great-grandparents John Buckley and Margaret Considine Buckley.
Today we drove from Rapid City to Lemmon, South Dakota. Lemmon is our father’s hometown and sits on the border of North Dakota. It’s where we visited our grandparents Mom and Pop Buckley every summer as we were growing up. The house where they lived is now long gone, sold to the Catholic Church across the street, after my grandmother was moved into a rest home. The church razed it to make way for more parking. But the sidewalk to the front steps survives and the neighbor’s house still stands. We wandered the town and found that much had changed, and many things hadn’t. We spent some time at the Petrified Wood Park, which has not changed at all since our childhood and which captured our imagination then and now. We had all forgotten how beautiful it is on the open South Dakota plain.
This morning we brought our mother’s ashes to be with our father at the Black Hills National Cemetery. The tombstone will be redone to include her name on the other side, with the inscription “Journalist. Beloved Wife and Mother.” We are happy our parents are together again.
“She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and she is diligent and intentional.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her with these words:
‘Many women do noble things, But you surpass them all.’”
—Proverbs 31: 25-29
In my youth, our family would frequently swing by Mount Rushmore, on our summer vacations to see my dad’s parents in South Dakota. Today my siblings and I returned for a journey down memory lane. It's so much more impressive in person. #SouthDakotaPilgrimage
Missing our mom today on our first Mother’s Day without her. The first two photos are from her 99th birthday party, eight months before she passed away in June last year. She was still participating and living life as fully as she was able. The third photo is from 26 years ago, with the four children who adored her.
My sister Betty Lynn, my brother Patrick, and I have convened in Rapid City, South Dakota. Tomorrow we’ll bury our mom’s ashes with our dad at the National Cemetery in Sturgis. Our late brother Michael will be with us in spirit.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! May your love always surround us and give us the courage to face this new normal.
