My grandfather, Nathaniel Jones's coffin at Union Cemetery, Bakersfield, CA, his final resting place.
I found this photo in a book of “Cherished Memories” given to me by my grandmother, Louise Coleman Walton. It’s basically a funeral book for my grandfather, Nathaniel Jones who died in 1944 when my mom was only eight years-old. I guess a part of the service provided by the funeral home was to take a picture of the coffin before it was interred. I’m glad that they did. I’ve never had a chance to visit Nathaniel’s grave since it’s in Bakersfield, California and I’m in New Jersey. I obviously never met him either since he died when my mom was a little girl, so the information provided in the funeral book (everything from names of pallbearers to “friends who called”) is a quick connection to relatives I never got a chance to know. My grandmother remarried a few years later and while she kept up contact with her first husband’s family and told me all about them, her new life with an Air Force man brought her east to Massachusetts, then to England where my new grandfather was stationed during the Korean War and finally to New Jersey where they ultimately settled. I hope I get a chance to see Nathaniel’s final resting place in person some day soon. Meanwhile, this photo is a cherished memory indeed.
Finding Josephine 