Kent Redux and More Gravestones

This morning we begin our trek back to LaCrosse. We spent the past few days visiting friends and relatives. We were able to spend an afternoon with Ray and Doris Aeschliman. It seems wherever we go we run into people who know Grace or who remember my dad. Just wandering around downtown we'll be stopped to chat by old friends. What a life they'd built here together.

We were also able to explore Kent a bit more. Lots if changes there. The town/gown connection is stronger in both spirit and physical planning. A new campus/ city gateway is inviting from all sides. We particularly enjoyed the Wick Poetry Center and garden connected to Kent State University. At the center of the garden us a large bronze sculpture and small amphitheater for doing readings. The sculpture is connected to a watering system and in the summer there are 9 plants hosting a garden in its crooks and crannies. The newly built KSU Center for Architecture and Environmental Design building is quite an impressive structure too.

On our return drive from Pittsburgh to Kent we stopped by another cemetery in Alliance, Ohio. The Brinker memorials are arranged in a semicircle around a central monument. My great great grandfather August Brinker is interred there. He died at the age of 54 during the great influenza outbreak of 1919. The Brinkers were reportedly seed merchants who shared the business with another family, the VanWarmers. The families also intermarried and shared the central stone, VanWarmer on one side and Brinker on the other. Nit sure about the child sized stone for William Brinker who was born and died in February 1900. He may have been an older brother to my grandfather William G Brinker, or perhaps a cousin.

Last evening we dined with friends and family at a Lebanese restaurant in Hudson Ohio. Uncle Al and his partner Ginger, Cousin Dave and his wife Jill, and friends Dick Leppo and Kay Hensel. Lots of laughs and good company.

And now we move west...Read more