After reading the veterans’ story in The Astorian, memories started flowing.

The last time I saw my mother when I was 17. My parents divorced when I was 12. Then she moved to Idaho. She moved back to Astoria when I was 17, and lived with my grandmother on the Schulbach Farm on Youngs River Loop Road. She passed away right after I joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1951.

I didn’t return to Clatsop County until 1972, when I retired from the military. I planned on visiting her grave, but could not find it, or anyone who knew where she was. I was just about ready to give up, when a few years ago I received a letter from Phyllis Zegers, of Roseburg.

She was contacting me to let me know that my grandfather had passed away in 1932, two years before I was born, and that his ashes where being held in Salem, where there were hundreds of unclaimed remains.

I contacted Zegers about the ashes, and told her I could not locate my mother’s grave. Zegers did some research and found that my mother had remarried, and when she passed away, used that name at her burial. Zegers also let me know that she was in Greenwood Cemetery.

I had my grandfather’s ashes sent to Greenwood Cemetery, where he was buried with my mother. I got a brand new headstone, and had all of her last names put on the new headstone, so anyone looking could find her easier than I did.

BOB COOK

Seaside