Philly/NJ

We finally did get some real snow.  That's our apartment building off to the right.  It has been bitterly cold though.  Tom stopped and got a shot of the ice on the Potomac.

We had plans to meet Tom's siblings in NJ to finally lay his mom's remains to rest and see the headstone.  We decided to stop in Philadelphia on the way and see if we could find his grandparent's graves at a Catholic Cemetery just out of the city.

Tom got the information from the caretaker and we found his grandmother's marker but were unable to find his grandfather's even after going up and down the rows of headstones.  We went back and it turns out his remains are buried on top of her (and there are two other family plots underneath them) but his grandfather's name was not put on the headstone.  There's not really room to add his to her stone so the family needs to look at getting him his own stone.

It was an interesting cemetery as it was filled with Italian names.  No Smiths & Petersons like in Utah!

We stopped and bought subs for dinner to take to Marie's.  Yeah, healthy eating gets put on the back burner every time we head to Jersey!  Turns out it was Victor's birthday and Marie asked Tom to help put some photos together for the surprise party they were having Saturday night.  So of course Tom can't do anything the easy way and put together a really nice piece with photos, music, special effects and such.  But it also took the entire evening so Marie and I sat and watched some of her favorite shows…..Duck Dynasty and some show about a guy who builds fancy adult tree houses!

We met Joe and Karen at 9:30 the next morning at the cemetery.  Denny couldn't come because it had snowed all week and he had to take advantage of the clear day to catch up on some jobs.  The guy who had dug the spot for the case was there and had everything set up.  Tom went over to take a look at it and Eleanor's name is mis-spelled on the headstone!  Ugh!  The guy said he had noticed that it was different than what he had on the paperwork.  So Tom had to deal with getting that fixed this week.  He contacted the mortuary and the guy sent back a letter of apology.  Honestly, the comedy of errors regarding this poor woman laid comfortably and notably in the ground has been an adventure.  Anyway, it was very low key.  A couple of prayers were said then we left so the guy could finish his job.  We went and had breakfast at a diner then headed back to Marie's so Tom could finish the photos for Victor and burn copies while Marie went to the museum to help some of his friends get it decorated for the party.  Again, it took a couple of more hours but we were finally able to get on the road.  Marie wanted us to stay for the party but we still had things to do to get ready for a Superbowl Party we were having the next day so excused ourselves.