So a friend of mine has moved to New Orleans.  She obviously doesn’t visit very much because, well, she lives in New Orleans and “Home” is Indianapolis.  Which sounds more exciting?  Anyway, she came home for a week because of a baby shower and we hung out for a few days.

We used to be roommates at IU so one day we drove down to Bloomington for a nostalgia-fest.  Andrew works down there three days a week so we made sure to go on a day that we could have lunch with him.  We made all the usual stops. Yogi’s for lunch, the Union, Kirkwood, our old house, the Auditorium for a visit with old friends.  I even got a no-bake cookie from Sugar and Spice, or what my friends and I decided to call it our Freshman year, a no-bake-ie.  Eh?  Clever, right?  Eh?

Anyway…

Of course I can’t go anywhere without thinking, “Is there a cemetery I need to visit?”  Well, there weren’t any for my family, but I recently started working on a friend of mine’s tree.  We’ll call her C-Dogg B-Dizzle to protect her identity.  She is also a friend I have known since Bloomington days and I found out that much of her family came from Bloomington and the nearby areas.  In fact, I lived ONE BLOCK from where her Great Great Grandparents were buried.  We were neighbors!  In fact, I used to take little strolls in that cemetery.  I’ve always loved cemeteries.  In fact, one of the reasons I loved my last apartment in Bloomington so much was because it was nestled right in between two cemeteries, and I had a great view of the pretty one on a hill out my living room AND bedroom window.

Now C-Dogg was not really aware of her history there and only knew that a grandfather of hers went to high school there.  Her Brosmans have been living in that area for generations, if not in Monroe County, then neighboring Greene County.

My New Orleans friend helped me find the headstone in White Oak Cemetery.  I can tell you with certainty that she REALLY didn’t want to get out of the car in that 98 degree heat and help me hunt for headstones, but she was a good sport and SHE found it.

What I found very interesting about the plots of her family is that they were scattered sort of haphazardly across the back line of the cemetery along the trees.  Ella and Alvin Brosman (married) had matching stones, but were like 25 yards from each other.  William Byrd, a son of theirs, was somewhere in between along with like 6 others.

Headstone for Ella Jane Brosman

Headstone for Alvin Brosman - C-Dogg's gg grandfather

Another thing I found amusing was within the tree line was another sad little cemetery but for unwanted headstone decorations.  They absolutely littered the surrounding woods.

Abandoned flowers in White Oak Cemetery

The closest we got to an “adventure” was mixing up White Oak Cemetery with Rose Hill Cemetery.  Thanks, Google Maps (that was sarcasm).  BUT we had a lovely time on our visit.  And I was delighted to find something for a friend.