This past week, Bonnie's cousin Terry invited us to come listen to him preach in Waycross. He was going to be at the Primitive Baptist Church on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We went to Friday night's service where he introduced me to Elder Jason Deal, and I told him that we have known each other for quite a while.
During Terry's sermon, he brought up a story about when he grew up and had chickens and one of them had passed away. His uncle Ralph (Bonnie's dad) and their family had come over about that time and he was getting ready to bury his rooster. Bonnie's older sister Debra went in the backyard with him and Terry remembered having a funeral service and singing a song before burying it.
I asked Debra about it, and she said she remembers doing it, but her and Terry couldn't have been but five or six years old at the time.
This Sunday, Kyle brought our granddaughter Aliya over and she saw that I had a dead butterfly in a jar. I took it out of the jar and let her hold it, and Bonnie came up with an idea after remembering Terry's chicken service story.
We dug a small hole, said a few words, sang a song and buried that butterfly in my backyard. I wonder if she will remember that many years from now.
A monarch butterfly might seem like a small thing around which to build a memory, but little things mean a lot to children later in life. Photo by Wayne Morgan
