Jessica Lynn Martin

When visiting Nanas and Papaws,
this is another friend I will miss when I go home.

This is my greatest accomplishment.
I made these from flour and stuff.
Everybody said they were good
especially the Italian garlic twists.

Here's where we went for
picnics when I was small.

Jessica along with Papaw during his favorite pasttime.
Here we are at
(L), Mt. Home Baptist Church cemetery, Burke county
and (R) St. Johns Lutheran, n. of Conover.

I wanted a picture of Jessica doing what we had done so many years before.
I asked her to find the place in the cemetery where she wanted her picture taken.
She informed me that she would make her decision after she had the chance to see a few.
We walked through the cemetery and looked at many graves. I pointed out the resting
places of Confederate soldiers, city founders, philanthropists, and every-day families.
I pointed out the little gravestones with lambs and angels carved upon them.
Those, I explained, were the little children that died at a very young age.

We came to two small gravestones, each little more than a foot high.
The stone on the left was a memorial to Alvin Luecke (10 Jul 1900 - 25 Jun 1901).
"Suffer the little children to come unto me"
is the unfinished verse on the bottom of the stone.

(click to enlarge)

We discussed the familiar Sunday School lesson, where Jesus rebuked the hard hearts of the Pharisees and welcomed sinners and children (Mark 10:14).

The limestone marker on the right is that of Walter Luecke (14 May 1906 - 14 Jun 1907).
Prophetically continued from the tragedy of six years before is the completion of the verse:
"For of such is the kingdom of Heaven."

(click to enlarge)

After twenty minutes of walking through the cemetery it was time to go.
This would be the last day we would spend together
before she flew back to Kansas City for the new school year.

She finally decided that she wanted her picture taken by
the Luecke children's stones.

And here it is:

Papaw & Jessica
Conover City Cemetery
July 24, 2003

(If you'd like to know what I have discovered
about the Luecke family, please go here:

A year later, our little girl has grown up. This is Halloween, 2004:

This is not the child we knew while changing diapers.
This is the cherub who emerged from the chrysalis.
There is no way to express our love for our Jessica.
We only wish we could keep her as a child forever.

We never could have imagined that she would have braces
The older Jessica becomes, the more we are blessed.

Derick S. Hartshorn - (C) 2004
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