He drank his coffee and splashed some water on his face and we were on our way. It wasn't very far, a jog down Route 59 then over to I55. Then over to Justice Illinois where Resurrection Cemetery is located. I pulled into the main office and went into the
lobbey to the convenient kiosk they had where you can look up grave locations. I printed out all the Szeszols I could find and jumped back into the car. The first stop was the Szeszol/Bianco headstone monument.
The people that are buried there are Mary Jarzab (my great grandmother), Frank Szeszol (my great grandfather), John Szeszol (my great uncle), Stanley Szeszol (my great uncle),Laura Szeszol (my great aunt), Julia Szeszol Bianco (my great aunt), and Julia's husband Jasper Bianco.
It's located in section EE by a large tree. Dad and I said our hellos and talked a bit about every one there. Then Dad smirked and started saying the Viking prayer:
Lo, there do I see my father (and I chime in right about here)
Lo, there do I see my mother and my sisters and my brothers
Lo, there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning
Lo, they do call to me
They bid me take my place among them in the Halls of Valhalla
Where the brave may live.
Forever.
At the end we smile at each other.
We said our goodbyes and headed back to the car for the next site.
We headed over to section NN to look for two Szeszols we weren't sure about. Frank Szeszol and Elzbieta Szeszol. We tromped around and around to no success. So we went back to main office to inquire about their graves. I guess some time in the 1960's when the deed expired to their graves, the next of kin didn't renew the deed and so the headstones were removed. We could repurchase a deed for $100 and be allowed to put up a headstone. Since we weren't sure who these Szeszols were we headed out to the next grave site in section MM of Joseph Szeszol and his wife Honorota Szeszol.
I believe Joseph Szeszol was a half brother to my great grandfather Frank.
There is a large Cross in this section of the cemetery so it made finding this one was fairly easy. Next we headed over to section 24 where Julia Szeszol/Gonka is buried. Julia is my great grandfather Frank's half sister. This section is a large flat area with few monuments and we didn't find her. So we made our way to the Chapel building where the walls have big drawers of tombs. On the first floor Dad found Chester and Bernice Szeszol together, near St. Stanislaus. These Szeszols belong to another branch of the tree. On the second floor we found Julie M. Szeszol. I do not know who she is or where she fits in the Szeszol tree. We also found my grandparents Thaddeus and Della Szeszol. They are in the hallway called the Gallery of the Old Covenant, which has huge stained glass windows that brightly color the room.
We stopped by the main office again on our way out to inquire about the location and headstone of Julia Gonka. I guess we just missed her because there is a headstone there for her but not her husband Andrew Gonka. The only grave I completely forgot to look for was Katherine Szeszol/Smejkal who is sister to Thaddeus, daughter of Frank, and my great aunt. Oh well, I'll just have to go back.
We got back home and I started to look at the old pictures again. Dad told me that my cousin had a lot of pictures and paperwork and that I should call her. So I did. She was busy running around the house but offered I could stop by to pick up the stuff she had. So I drove out to her house. I quickly went through the stuff while she was getting ready to leave. We chatted about stuff and I went my way and she went hers. When I finally got back to my house I started to go through the stuff I acquired. There are a lot of neat photos in there which I will be scanning into my computer very soon. As I was looking through the pictures of the headstones I took, I saw this one where Dad is standing behind the Szeszol monument. Then something hit me. The realization that he, James Szeszol, is the last Szeszol of his family line.
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