Today Mom and I drove over to Manhattan, MT to put a wreath of artificial flowers on my Grandma Harriet’s grave. She is buried in the Niven family plot in a small cemetery outside of Manhattan. It is a very beautiful cemetery out in a agricultural area. My grandma spent her formative years on a farm not far from the site of the cemetery.
Actually the cemetery sits on the site of a town that was callled Hamilton back in the 1800’s. The town then moved closer to the railway that went thru the Gallatin valley and the name was changed to Manhattan.
When I was growing up I and my sisters called her Grandma Boo. This was because she liked to play peek-a-boo with us when we were little and the name just stuck.
My grandmother had Multiple Sclerosis and it slowly robbed her of her ability to speak clearly. When I was little she could still talk but over the years her speaking ability became less and more difficult. This was very frustrating for her, she had a sharp mind pretty much until,the end. However her ability to communicate was severely limited.
Anyway the disease was cruel and she fought it valiantly for a very long time.
While it was not the prettiest of days, we had a nice drive over. We stopped and had lunch at Wheat Montana just outside Three Forks, MT. Then we headed onto Manhattan.
We saw a lot of different birds on this trip. We had a beautiful pheasant rooster that strutted up out of the ditch and slowly walked in front of us just before we got to the cemetery. I had to come to a complete stop to keep from hitting him. He was beautifully colored. We saw lots of doves in the cemetery and several breeds of hawks that were likely looking to feed on the doves. We also saw another couple pheasants as we were leaving the cemetery.
We then took a drive thru Manhattan and took the old two lane road from Manhattan to Three Forks. We drove through Three Forks and then back out to the Interstate and back home.
Both side of my Mom’s family have a lot of history in the Gallatin Valley, so I think she enjoyed the drive today.
Jennifer and I had spent our 30th Anniversary traveling around some of the area. We had driven down to Ennis, MT and then over to the Big Sky area and then spent the night in Belgrade MT. We visited several breweries and Willie’s distillery in Ennis, MT where we got our first taste of huckleberry liquor. That was a fun little trip.
Anyway it was a good day and I am happy we went and put flowers on Grandma Boo. she deserved it.
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