Small country cemeteries are carved out at the edges of corn and soybean fields. The Lily Lake Cemetery is at the top of a small rise overlooking flat farmland in every direction. It's as if the settlers decided they wanted to rest forever overlooking the land they loved and farmed for their livelihood. It seems very lonely in the wintertime, cold and barren with nothing to stop the relentless wind. My daughter's friend Cody is buried here.
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This pic & your accompanying remarks reminds me of the role cemeteries play in Willa Cather's *O Pioneers!* (surely you've read it?) Alexandra refuses to quit the land where her father is buried, and there's this recurring image of farmers coming to rest beneath the same soil they plowed. Alexandra's strength comes from the soil because she loves it & doesn't dread someday dwelling *under* it.
Funny you should mention that book. In fact, I haven't read it, but I picked up a copy at a garage sale last weekend and it's sitting right here on my desk. The first grown up book I read when I was a kid was Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth", which carries the same theme about connection to the land. I'll start reading "O Pioneers!" tonight! Regards, Suzanne
I read (and loved) *The Good Earth* years ago...and I definitely recommend Willa Cather. She's one of my favorite novelists, and *O Pioneers!* is probably my favorite of her novels.
And after you're done, pick up "My Antonia" (if you haven't read that one already). Terrific book also by Cather. Hate to say which is better but if you like one, here's betting you'll like the other.
My great, great grandparents, great grandmother, grandparents, mother, and numerous other relatives are buried in Lily Lake Cemetery. Also, my husband and I have lots and plan to be buried there. I'm 74 so before too long we will probably have 6 generations buried there. The names are Powell, Wilkison, Watson, Burnett and Corkum. My name is Shirley Watson Whitecotton. One of my ancestors was a teacher at the Lily Lake school.
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