my thoughts: Birthday Miracle

Rebecca, Margie and Lane sitting
in front of tombstone

The Lost Tombstone

Birthday Miracle

When we were serving a mission in the South, my mother, sister Margie, brother Lane and his wife Nancy came to see us. We knew they would be there on my mothers birthday so we drove to her birthplace in Columbus, Georgia to see her childhood stomping grounds. After seeing her high school, her church, and the property she use to live on, we decided to go see the cemetery where her mother was buried. It ws a huge cemetery with 22,000 thousand tombstones, by far the largest cemetery I have ever been in. My mother could not remember where she was buried so we went to the sexton to get directions to her mothers grave, but he was gone for the day. We were just about to give up looking and I said "No", we are not giving up. It's mom's birthday and she deserves to see where her mother was buried (it had been 60 years ago).

I told everyone I had a plan. I took them to the center of the cemetery and said " let's give ourselves another 30 minutes to look for her tombstone. We will start here in the center and all go in separate directions. There were 7 of us, so we left the center and walked for thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes was just about up when we heard a faint sound, I headed in that direction and there was my sister-in-law Nancy excited because she had found it. She said she just happened to bend down and remove the long grass and weeds off a tombstone and it said "Argdon Ophelia. "

This was a big miracle. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I later found out there are 22,000 headstones on 54 acres at that cemetery. It was a big miracle. I knew it was a righteous desire and the Lord would help us. And He did!

Since it was Mom's birthday we tried everywhere to buy her a pecan pie which the south is famous for. With no success, we went back to our apartment and I made one. It was a great visit from a part of our family and will always remember "To look unto God in all things, doubt not fear not."