Burying The Dead

We always like to do a cemetery episode during October in keeping with the "spooky" theme of the season.  This year, however, we're not playing up the spooky or macabre side of cemeteries.  Instead, we're looking at the compassionate, caring side of cemetery operations with Brother Jon Hart, manager of the IOOF Memory Gardens in Livermore, California.  Brother Hart had a meandering path to the job, starting with joining the Livermore Lodge and then jumping in to help save the cemetery when it looked like the lodge would need to sell it.  Since then he's been able to use his skills as an ordained minister and former systems programmer to make the cemetery experience a holistic and caring one.  There's no Shoutout in this episode (but you can contact us with info about other lodges doing great things for future Shoutouts) but there are some great items to share in the Odd Podge.  Toby went to the Idaho Grand Sessions in Pocatello and got to visit with old friend and fellow Washington PGM Kelly Hughes (now our Sovereign Grand Warden), Jon reflected on how the word "remember" means to bring people back together, and Ainslie shared his story of being elected Grand Warden of Illinois and then the triumphal success of his lodge's Odd Market.