TheBanyanTree: Another Story About Ashes

[Pam North]

Oh my.... there are more than just MY ashes to golf stories out there?!?!?!

And I just married another avid golfer.  Eeekk!!

But it does remind me of another story...  (my son is Charlie, named
fittingly and perfectly after my dad, Charlie)

A dozen years or so before my dad died, he had a debilitating stroke.  For a
long time he couldn't swallow, among other things, and he never did walk a
straight line again without his cane since he had no balance left at all.

Meanwhile, while he spent months in rehab and relearning so many things, his
golf buddies had to persevere and hit the course without him.  And there was
a joke going around that those buddies told others... 'Did you hear about
Charlie"....  I don't remember the whole joke, I just remember their punch
line:

"Hit the ball, drag Charlie."

Which reminds me of another story...

The doctors early on had asked my dad what his goal was in recovery, and he
told them that he wanted to golf again.  Many months later I went home to
visit and was going to meet my dad at the club house after his round.

I got there and he wasn't around anywhere so I started watching the course
to see if I could see him anywhere on the last holes...  Nope, no dad.

And then I was watching this one guy come up on the ball and ready himself
to hit it, and the next thing I knew this same guy had just flipped over and
fallen down.  Ahhh...  THERE was my father!!

Because he had no balance, and he didn't want to bother with a cane on the
course, he'd leave the cart with two clubs - the one he wanted to use, and
another 'throw away'.  He'd 'balance' himself over the ball and swing, and
then retrieve the other club and walk back.

But evidently, that time (and others I'm told) he wasn't quite so
balanced...  But he was golfing!!

Pam

On 9/13/08, Kitty Park <kpark at sssnet.com> wrote:
>
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> My husband and I purchased cemetery plots early in our
> marriage.  Six years later, he was transferred and we moved
> 700 miles away.  There was no family left behind, no reason
> to return.  Therefore, as my husband approached the end of
> his battle with cancer, he found cremation to be an
> acceptable alternative to burial.
>
>
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> The plan was that three buddies and our son take his ashes
> with them on a Saturday golf outing and scatter them here
> and there over the course.  So the ashes, in their plain
> brown box, sat on a shelf awaiting a visit from Brett who
> lives across the country.  His trips home usually came
> during winter holidays - Thanksgiving or Christmas.  In
> Ohio, greens are frozen by then and golf clubs have been
> stowed until spring.
>
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> Nearly ten years passed.  Brett moved again, and his sister
> and I visited him in San Diego.  Included in the activities
> would be disbursing their dad's ashes.  Where?  Near Torrey
> Pines, a golf course he had played and where I felt
> confident he'd like to be - a premier golf course in an area
> with beautiful weather year 'round.
>
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> I don't know why I was surprised to see we weren't the first
> with such a great idea.  As we walked over the scrub ground,
> sparkles of minerals shown in the sunlight.  Obviously there
> were other people now on the other wide who had been as
> crazy about the game as he was.  We congratulated ourselves
> on finding this perfect place.  Brett held back a handful of
> ashes, and as we walked to the car, he lofted the final bit
> over the fence onto the adjacent tee.
>
>
>
> Kitty
>
> kpark at sssnet.com
> www.parkplaceohio.com
>
>