Not really
................... I've seen a lot of strange in my time, but this is really out there.
I got up the brass to locate my mother's plot today, so "her" dog and I could visit. I couldn't find the section, somehow B doesn't come between A & C and there's no map at the entrance. Anyway, I missed the marker more than once.
It's a cold gray late afternoon, there's just one other person in the yard, and she couldn't miss I was driving in circles what I thought was only section 2A. After spending some time at this other site, she walked over onto the center of the section I was circling. Soon after I saw she was trying to get my attention, and here's the gist of it.
She says "you look at me like I'm trying to steal something". I told her I'm just trying to locate 2B.
She says "my parents and son are right here", which was section 2A, then she demonstrates where 2B is likely located, as she walks west the years are later and later. I thanked her, got out of my car and found what I was looking for.
From 50-60 feet direct east of me she immediately starts a conversation about family.
She says her father was on the circuit back in the day, and performed the trumpet for Sinatra. I admitted my father was in the business and worked with Sinatra as well (dad said he was a AH
). Anyway, supposedly this gal's father and mine come from the same generation and worked the casinos etc..
She asked about my father's passing, then she explains her father didn't have quite the duration because he was a drunk. I admitted to my father being an alcoholic as well, saying "after all, they were musicians"
. She's getting a rise out of the similarities, but she was acting odd.
She says she's retired, and asked if I was too. I admitted to being retired, and she asked where from. I told her, and she says her as well (it's a big operation). Then she tells me exactly the department she retired from, and I admitted to my brother working in the same department only one city over.
She tells me she hates her wealthy brother, who "didn't do anything". I suppose she meant with her parent's passing. Anyway, you should see my brother
but I didn't get into it.
She asked where my wife was. I told her I was divorced, and she says yeah me too. She's acting struck by the similarities. I'm more struck by a very odd situation.
She asked what my last name was. I should go by Idiot sometimes, because I tend to trust people more than I should unless they lose it, and I was even in law enforcement for a time
Anyway, I told her my last name. Then I asked her name, and she says, "I can't say, I don't know you." I said "I can see the headstones you're standing over", and she jokingly says it's not my last name, as if referring to her married name. Then she looks down at the headstones....(
hmm), and soon after she "admitted" to the name Meyer.
She probably snapped another 2-3 topics of similarities, nearly every time I followed. This went on for a couple minutes, not a moment's peace.
At this point I walked over so we're not yelling across the yard, though I'm getting a real hint of schizophrenia or similar. I stopped walking from 20 feet out and said jokingly, "I'd shake your hand but for the virus". Her response was odd, she started to walk away, but then she stopped.
Then she asked me for a card. I say "card"? and she says, you know, like a business card. I told her I didn't have one, and she went onto explain if I had a card she could call me. I recognized a face of despair, surely mental on some level, sometimes the eyes don't lie, other times it's the mouth. Then she asked for my phone number, but I declined.
I suspect she spends a lot of time in that graveyard. As for the similarities, who knows how people with schizophrenia think, she couldn't have known me, my dad would require much research, she couldn't have known my mother. Or could she?