At 1:30 pm, Edwin, Richard and Steven Potter, along with Kristin Knight went to Mound Grove cemetery for a private inurnment of Edgar's ashes.  It was a still and typical Missouri autumn day.  Edgar's final resting place is a spot of ground that he and Steve selected a few years back.  As a groundskeeper at Mound Grove, Ed had often seen deer and other wildlife frequent the area near a small tree line.  Given the opportunity, he chose a place, right a long that tree line.  It is also only thirty or forty yards from his Uncle Sam and Aunt Ardith's gravesites.

As we all stood and reflected, something very strange happened.  All the previous summer, Ed had commented to Steve about how there weren't very many monarch butterflies this year.  Indeed, due to several environmental issues, there were not many butterflies that had made it north to Missouri.  As Steven and Kristin slowly started walking toward the small white column holding the urn, a monarch butterfly came from the tree line, landed briefly on the column, and then flew off to the west.  It was such a strong emotional moment and seemed much more than mere chance.

All of us, in turn, said some final "goodbye" and we took time to visit Aunt Ardith and Uncle Sam's graves.  Steve also took time to share a story with the groundskeepers that were working this day.  Ed had forbidden Steve to purchase lots in the newer part of the cemetery because he knew it was very rocky under the soil and feared that there may be a surcharge to open such graves.  He also said that he didn't want to make anyone dig in that rock.  He also mentioned at one time that he wanted to be cremated so the groundskeepers wouldn't have to dig such a big hole.  His experience was that this task was hard, but especially hard in the winter.  Having done this many times himself, he didn't want to force anyone to do that on his account.  The groundskeepers enjoyed the story.  One of the groundskeepers really seemed to enjoy the story, since he  had worked with Ed at Mound Grove in the late 1960's.

Images of Edgar's final resting place