Juanita Carr Rush’s Grave Experience

Yesterday, I went down to the Checotah cemetery to put flowers on our families’ graves. When I got to where Mama, Papa, Grandma Austin and Tommy are buried, I could see that there was a man sitting on Mama’s headstone.

Naturally, I asked him what he was doing sitting on my Mama’s headstone. That lead to an exchange of names and a bit of family history.

It turned out he was Andrew Peterson’s nephew. He  told me that Mama saved his life.  When he was very young (how young I don’t know) he became critically ill and ‘was given up to die’. Then somebody suggested going to get Mama to see if she could help. When she came she sent someone to dig up some roots from a certain tree and bring them to her. She boiled them, making a tea from them which she proceeded to give to the sick child and he recovered. So he has fond memories of Mama.

You never know who you will run into in a graveyard. One week someone named Minnie Carr is sitting in the same row as me at church, then a few days later, I run into someone whose life she saved. VERY INTERESTING!!!