Sharing my photos of myself and Joan D. (Szczepankiewicz) Stevens of Lorain taken at Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, Ohio on April 9, 2017.
While at Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, I decided its time to visit the gravesite of some of my Szczepankiewicz family members from my maternal grandmother's family. Specifically, Stanley Szczepankiewicz and his wife Sophie's gravesites.
While walking toward the gravestone, I immediately saw a lady finishing up decorating it with Easter flowers. I decided to walk up and ask her if she is Joan Stevens, the daughter of Stanley and Sophie, whom I had written to over the years but not received recent replies from, unfortunately. She said she was indeed Joan Stevens, so we struck up a conversation and I told her about my maternal great-grandmother's gravesite in another section that she said she had never visited before. I mentioned that if she had time to follow us there, I would show it to her. My maternal great-grandmother is Antonina Szczepankiewicz. So we stopped at my ancestor's gravesite where my husband took our photo standing by it. Afterward, we drove up to another section of the cemetery to visit the gravesites of Joan's grandparents Antoni and Victoria (Krokos) Szczepankiewicz. Antoni and Antonina were siblings.
Meeting Joan so unexpectedly certainly was the highlight of my day. She is such a remarkable person that at age 85 and after overcoming major health issues, still drives out to decorate her parents' gravesites. I pray she is able to continue with her visits for many years to come.
