Page 4 of 7 Janet, Janice..about 7 yrs. old

I remember the time Janice and I found some dead mice & birds and felt they needed burial.  So, being the month of May at Grandmother's farm, we took out her statue of Mary and placed it outside and picked some wild flowers for the funeral. We put the animals in a box; I remember having a couple and tied them together to form a funeral procession.  We sang songs , wore something on our heads and pretended we were nuns.  I don't recall who said mass, I think Janice did.  We cried because that is what people do at a funeral. Our audience was a couple of cats and a dog or two.  We placed wild flowers over their graves somewhere out in the field and marked them with sticks. Grandmother had a lot of chickens.  We knew how to put them to sleep.  We had a contest going to see who could do the most.  You would pick up a chicken, tuck their head under their wing and gently rock them until they fell asleep.  Once this happened we placed them on the ground and went for another.  I am not certain who had the most chickens sleeping but what a site to see.  20-30 chickens asleep in the base of the tree and scattered all over the ground.