Dear Editor:
Thank you for the pictured article written by GK Harkness in the Borderlines: Sketches From an Empty Quarter column – “Arlington Cemetery in Far Western Kiowa County” in the April 19, 2023 edition. Three of my siblings, a niece, a grandson, brother-in-law, and parents lay sleeping on that old Prairie hill. Phyllis’ and my stone are on the south end of the Griswould lineup—is what I call it.
I have decorated those graves since 1983 following my mother’s death. She buried a son at Arlington in 1944 and decorated his grave every year thereafter.
I promised my momma I would decorate those graves for her after she was gone. Phyllis and I have made it a rule to decorate family graves in Eads, Haswell, Arlington, Boone, and Colorado Springs. These are the places where our relation has memory stones.
Recently, we have gone to cremation since my daddy. The boxes are smaller and besides remember me as I was, not as I am in old age or sickened body.
The west gate of that cemetery is the Griswould graves. We will probably plant more people than any family within the community. The Griswould family was probably the largest family to grow up there.
Now that I think about it, there could be more Andersons. I guess I never actually counted head stones.
Thank you,
Floyd M. Griswould
