Reality etched in stone

I just called my mom to tell her something and thought she sounded odd.  After I was finished with my thing, she mentioned she had just gotten a phone call.  Given her tone, I braced myself for bad news.  As it turns out, it was not at all bad news, but I do understand my mother's emotional response.  The headstone for my father's grave has been installed.  I know it's been almost 2-1/2 years (in fact exactly 29 months ago today) since he passed, but it was winter and mom had planned to wait until the following spring.  Then of course she became ill, and pretty much lost all of that spring, summer, and early fall...and then it was winter again.  Finally last year she began to make plans, but it turns out it wasn't quite that simple.  My parents are being buried on plots that are actually owned by my grandmother.  There are eight plots altogether, with the original thought 29 years ago being my grandparents, their three children and spouses.  However, my uncle has since divorced and remarried, and his second wife has zero interest in being buried in my hometown.  Completely understandable since she has never spent one second living there.  It also turns out they wanted to be cremated so they don't need the plots.  My grandmother was not to be deterred from having her opinion however, and the "compromise" was reached that their names and dates would be on the other side of my parents' stone even though they aren't actually going to be there.  My grandmother agreed to pay for everything and it was clearly cheapest to have the stone removed from the site (matching stones were originally set when my grandfather passed away) and returned only one time instead of twice.  My uncle has some issues in dealing with his own mortality so in spite of my mother explaining how important it was that this be taken care of so it was no longer something hanging over her head, he couldn't quite bring himself to deal with what he and my aunt were going to have on their side of the stone.  At this point I think we can all agree that family can be both a blessing and a curse! :)

Anyway, the stone is now in place, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I haven't been to the cemetery in nearly a year, or perhaps even longer.  It's not where I feel my dad's presence.  In some ways, I don't even want to think about it, and I completely understand why my mom sounded emotional.  Oh goodness...I miss him so much.