What’s the story?

I have been working on the Family Tree for my “significant other’s” paternal side of the family.

Other than writing, cemeteries and genealogy are my other passions…..I call them addictions. I can wander through an old cemetery regardless of whether my family is there.

Old cemeteries are peaceful. There are often interesting, informative tombstones — and there’s certainly no chance of long-winded conversations if one is alone!

Through hours of digging, I learned that many of my friend’s father’s mother’s family are buried in a cemetery not far from where he now lives. We drove to the old cemetery to try and find some of his relatives.

(We found the vast cemetery but needed more information to find their stones.)

We stopped at McDonald’s for a “healthy” lunch of a chicken sandwich and a chocolate shake. Outside, in the hot Sun, sat a woman looking pretty disheveled.

After we went inside and ate, she came in and sat across from us. Her face was red from the Sun and the heat, and I felt guilty as we ate, and she seemed to watch. She had nothing in her hands but a small phone — no purse or wallet.

We debated whether to offer her some food and decided to talk to the McDonald’s Manager. We were assured that she had bought herself a drink, so we figured she had money had she wanted to eat.

As we got ready to leave, my friend stopped and spoke to her and asked her how she was doing, and her reply was, “not too…