number 8 on the list of things not to do at a cemetery

I went to Utah this last weekend.

(To my Utah friends: I know, I know.  I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was coming.  I was really only there Saturday and Sunday and I knew I wouldn't have time to see you, so I didn't tell you.  Please forgive me.)

On Sunday,  my two sisters who live in Utah, Lizzy and Lydia, and I decided to go up to Brigham City and visit dad.  It was the first time I've been up there since he was buried.  At that time, we hadn't gotten the headstone yet and I wanted to see it.  And I just wanted to visit him.

The evening before, I went to a wedding reception.  They had flowers on the tables with vases that they said we could keep, so I took a vase and a few flowers to bring up to put on the grave.  But the vase was very light and after putting it on the grave, it kept tipping over.  After one of the tippings, I said I should probably take the vase anyway because there was a sign upon entering the cemetery that said not to bring glass or wire onto the grounds.

"What?" said Lydia.  "This isn't glass!  It's plastic - watch!"

And before we could stop her, she took the vase and hit it against the cement at the base of the headstone, whereupon it promptly shattered as it was, in fact, glass, spilling flowers, water, glass and little blue pebbles all over the ground.

The three of us looked on in shock for a second and then burst out laughing.

"Well, that solves the problem of the vase," I said.

"At least it was on mom's side and not dad's," Lydia said.

At least, indeed.  We left the flowers sans vase by the headstone, thinking dad probably wouldn't care if there was a vase or not.  Or even if there were flowers.

Lessons learned:
- When your sister tells you that a vase is made of glass, maybe find some way to test that other than breaking the vase on your father's grave, even though dad probably laughed just as hard as we did.