I See……Dead People?!

No. Not really LOL. We went out to the property again this past weekend to make sure the area we cleared out from the last time was still neat. You know anytime we go out there we’re going to come back with something to talk about. Wouldn’t you know it, we had to cut the grass again. No surprise. It’s been a week, it’s been raining like crazy, and well…grass is going to do what grass does when it gets rain and sunshine.

But, while we were there we – well, the girl-child, made a discovery! And we got to learn a little bit about our property’s history. We were cleaning out from in front of the barn again when I hear the girl-child say, “Mom! Com’ere! There’s LETTERS on this step!” I was a little apprehensive walking back to the steps because I was a little ways away from her and sometimes this child gets a little – dramatic. To her, what could be letters probably really could have been breaks in the stair. But she seemed pretty adamant, so I went over.

Lo and behold, there were letters on the step! I thought that was odd. We brushed off some weeds and dirt and saw “ORD”. Hmm. Strange.

We kept brushing and saw “TIFORD”. Hold up….we started brushing a lot faster now and removing some caked up dirt. The step finally revealed itself – “BUD PETTIFORD”. Ummmmmm….I looked at girl-child, she looked at me and we backed up a bit. I thought to myself that maybe it was an inscription, kind of like a cornerstone for the shed. I looked at the step from a different angle and you may have guessed by now. That was nooooo step! That was a HEADSTONE! It was laying down and being used to help prop up the shed. As ingenious as that is, that can’t be regulation.

“Mommy! WE GOT DEAD PEOPLE ON OUR LAND!!!” LOL Yep, from the looks of things, we had dead people – at least one – on our land. It’s a shame what they did to Bud…just using him as a step and foundation for the shed.

Later on that day, the previous property owner stopped by to give us the key to the shed. We talked for a good while and then it happened. “You know, my daughter has a question for you.” “YES! WHO is BUD??”

Can you hear “Rudy Huxtable” when you read that? I can, but girl-child didn’t sound that way.

The previous property owner looked at us like we had three heads and stumbled upon an ancient secret yet to be revealed. I had to explain that we found what we think was his headstone. She told us the story of “Bud” and explained that he wasn’t there any longer – but across the way. That was good to know. I did more research on Bud and it seems that he was a black man that owned a LOT of land…and I mean like a LOOOOOOOT of land. It’s been handed down to family over the years and sold in portions. Ours happened to be a portion that he farmed on many years ago. Apparently he was buried there until he was moved to a family plot.

When our journey began, Antoine and I prayed. We prayed that we could have land and be good stewards of it. But, more importantly, maybe we could find an older black farmer that had farm property and was just tired. We were hoping to be able to keep that farmer’s legacy alive. Look at how God answered that prayer. “Bud” was not only a farmer, but he was definitely older, most certainly black, and seems to have a pretty good legacy to be kept alive. I pray that we can do right by him in keeping this portion of his family farm running and doing well for his community.

Y’all take care!