Laurel Hill Cemetery

My Great-grandma Josephine Romero Lindsey Smith had 11 children. Four of them died between 1885 and 1900 and were buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco. That Cemetery was exhumed in the 1930s and most of the bodies were moved to mass graves in Colma to make room for the living. Wednesday night I'll be staying in SF it turns out almost right on top of where that cemetery used to be. That land which once held my great-grandma Josie's beloved dead, where the family would have gone with picnics so the living children could remember their dead siblings seems a perfect place for me to be as I continue this journey with cancer. When I realized the serendipity of it I was touched that the land already holds tender love and affection for my family line, as if they will be there to greet me and hold me that night, and I can remember them, both those who died so young (at birth, 7 months, 4 years, and 8 years) and those who lived on to grieve them. Gratitude to the Spirits of the Land of San Francisco, particularly that neighborhood, for holding the memory for not only my family but so many others as well.