Three years ago this week, on June 14, 2018, we buried Mom and Dad in Rosedale Cemetery in Linden, New Jersey. Both my parents had originally been cremated, but my sister, Sharon, and I decided to bring them back home to New Jersey for burial. Mom and Dad both grew up, met, married, and started a family in Elizabeth, a town about five miles away. There is a special closure in coming full circle.
Before he died, my Uncle Buddy (Churchill Thompson) deeded me his plot in Rosedale. It had space for six internments. His wife, Florence Anderson Thompson, was buried there in 1960. Aunt Florence “Annie Flo” was my mom’s favorite sister. She was a delightful person and died way too young at 39.
Mother’s grave (Helen L. Doherty) is in the Last Supper section, Lot: 158C, Grave 3. Dad’s grave (Eugene Nason Doherty) is in Grave 4. Aunt Florence (Florence Thompson) is in Grave 2. 
August F. Schmidt Funeral Home in Elizabeth, New Jersey, handled the arrangements. As I sat in the funeral home waiting to drive to the cemetery, I thought about the numerous relatives who had been laid out and mourned in these rooms over the last 100 years. There was a continuity with August Schmidt that I appreciated.
At 10:30 a.m., we drove to the cemetery. My Aunt Clara, one of mom’s younger sisters, met us there. My wife, Dolores (Lori) Mei, sister, Sharon Longworth, aunt, Clara Abbott, and friend, Christine Nusse, were present for the internment. Sharon draped mom’s rosary beads over her urn and placed the wooden Blessed Mother that I had given Mom as a teenager next to the urn. I placed a one-handed plastic Jesus next to Dad’s wooden urn. My father had lost a hand in World War II, and a plastic Jesus, also with a chipped hand, adorned the dashboard on all the station wagons we had growing up.
The service was meaningful and dignified. The urns were blessed and the spaces where they were going to rest was blessed. It was a beautiful, warm sunny day. My sister and I both had the same feeling during the service. Our parents were safe and at peace at home. 
