By David Lindeman

Contributing columnist

Searching out the past can take a lot of time.

I found this out recently when my wife and I took a trip to Lake Erie. On the way there, we decided to attempt to locate some of the burial sites of her grandmothers and other relatives on the east side of Cleveland. She had managed to dig up section and lot numbers for them and since we were going to be in the general vicinity, it seemed like a visit was in order.

They were located in two separate cemeteries that were only a few miles apart. Our first stop was Highland Park Cemetery. We have a map but we instantly discover that having a map is good only if you can read it. Which way is up? Where did we come in? Fortunately, this map has the sections clearly numbered and the cemetery has signs that clearly point out each section. We soon pull up in front of Section 5.

Next stop is actually finding the gravesite. We know about where it is and we wander around for a while with no success. Part of the problem is the gravestones are the kind that are flush with the ground, which makes the searching harder, especially when there is grass that obscured many of the gravestones.

Then, all of the sudden, there it is! We have found grandma and some aunts and uncles. The trouble is, the gravestone is partially covered by grass and dirt. We can’t just leave it like that – we should have brought a shovel. But there’s always a way to improvise. I pull a screwdriver out of the van and we proceed to cut the vegetation away. We spend a few minutes there, my wife tells some old stories and we leave a flower on the gravestone. Then, flushed with success, we decide to tackle Calvary Cemetery.

A few minutes later, we arrive. The security guy at the gate points us in the right direction and off we go. This is an old Catholic cemetery. One section has all the “O’s” – O’Brien, O’Connell, O’Malley. Clearly it is the Irish section. Then we drive past a section with a bunch of Italian names. Finally, in the back of the cemetery, we come to the Polish and Eastern European section. I never knew there were so many names that ended in “ecki” or “ski.” This provides a problem for us: this section of the cemetery is really big, and we can’t figure out how the graves are numbered. We wander around and I begin to think if we spend much longer there I might end in with a plot myself when a car stops nearby and a guy leans out the window.

“Need some help?” he asks.

It turns out this fellow spends a lot of time in the cemetery. He tells us stories about the famous people buried there, including Lawrence Welk and various Cleveland mobsters. He often stops by to take care of the grave of Olympic champion Stella Walsh. She’s in our section because she was born in Poland – her parents’ name was Walasiewicz. Our friend and his wife had just been checking on Stella when they saw us and decided we would be there a long time if they didn’t help us out. You can meet the nicest people in cemeteries.

They quickly narrowed down the possibilities and within a few minutes we discovered the gravesite.

Once again, we had to do some excavation to clean up the area around the headstone, which carried the names of four of my wife’s relatives, including her other grandmother. So the screwdriver came out again – by this time I am getting pretty good at cutting away turf with a screwdriver. After taking pictures and leaving another flower, we head back to the van to continue our journey,

The side excursion turned out to be worth the effort. There’s certain feeling of accomplishment when you find your ancestors’ final resting places. There’s also a connection there that, in this case, goes all the way back to Poland. I don’t know the metaphysics of the whole thing, but there is something special about taking a few minutes to pay respects to people who, after all, are responsible for us being here.

Winston Churchill once said, “The cemetery is full of indispensable people.”

Sometimes it’s a good thing to remember that and pay them a visit.

David Lindeman is a Troy resident and former editor at the Troy Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected].