Last week my housemate Bea and I drove to San Francisco to visit the grave of my uncle,
who in 1944 was buried in the National Cemetery at the Presidio.

The Presidio, originally named El Presidio Real de San Francisco, “…had been a fortified location since September 17, 1776, when New Spain established the presidio to gain a foothold in Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico in 1820, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848.” (Wikipedia)

Its status as an Army military installation ended several decades ago and it was transferred to the National Park Service in 1994. The military cemetery remains, roughly in the middle of the park, and that is the only part of the Presidio that Bea and I had time to visit.

We wished we’d had more time. As it was, we spent quite a while locating my uncle’s grave, and after saying a prayer there, we wandered up and down the rows of headstones, reading and musing over the names and dates, for an hour and a half.

We especially noticed the married couples. Above, John A. Smith and his wife Anne M. — John was a colonel in the Army during both world wars. He was born in 1882 and died in 1948. Anne M. died in 1986.

Arthur Superior and his wife Hilda Georgina
died on the same day, October 3,1952.

It was a gorgeous day, but the wind blowing off the Bay was chilly. The views: breathtaking!

My uncle died before he became an uncle; I never knew him. But I have been remembering him to God, and hope we will meet eventually. I’m glad his precious body has had such a beautiful place in which to rest and wait. Come, Lord Jesus!