I spent the nights of Days 5, 6, and 7 at my aunt's house in Lafayette.  We ate GREAT food and had nice conversations.  Day 6 I took a break from riding.  On Day 7 the Cycle rolled out to Abbeville, a small town I spent a good amount of time in as a child.  When I texted my mom to let her know I had just passed Lafayette General Hospital---where I was born in 1968---she texted back that I have just about as much hair now as I did then!  Ha, ha...on to Abbeville!


Many of my deceased family members are buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Abbeville.  You can see a glimpse of the beautiful St. Mary's Catholic Church through the drawbridge above.  I wanted to take pictures there, but a funeral procession was in place and I didn't want to disturb the scene.  After passing over the classic drawbridge I remember well from my youth, I stopped to ask some police officers eating lunch where exactly the cemetery was located.  Despite getting directions from my aunt before leaving Lafayette for this day trip, I had not been to the cemetery since the day thirty years ago that I shed so many tears for my wonderful grandpa. 


It took me some walking around before I found my Papa's burial site.  The Stansbury's are buried close to my other family names, the Babin and Noel families.  After locating Dalton "Gus" Stansbury, my Papa, I took a break to rest and appreciate the peaceful environment before exploring the cemetery thoroughly for over two hours in search of other Stansbury, Babin, and Noel sites.  There were quite a few.


Papa is buried in the same plot as his mother and brother.  His dad "James", however, was buried in a Methodist cemetery down the road.  He was not Catholic.  My Mama's name---"Rae"---is engraved under Papa's on the tombstone, though she is still very much alive.  Interestingly enough, Papa's sister (Jeanette "Net" Babin) is buried in the plot next to him with my Mama's brother, "Uncle" Gerard Babin.  Yes, Papa's sister was married to Mama's brother...and vice versa!!!  Mama Rae is still taking care of her sister Tyne in Slidell LA and I visited her a few days later.  A post on that visit will follow.  Several family members were shocked when she put her name on the tombstone with Papa's back in 1982! 

After my visit to the cemetery I ate 'candied oysters' at a local establishment called "Shucks" before riding back to Lafayette to see the Stansbury home at 134 Antigua, a street located off of the insanely busy Johnson Street...the home my mom grew up in until she graduated from Lafayette High School.  It has been refurbished (sadly, the huge picture window I loved seeing Papa wave to me from had been converted to  three-part window).  Both my mom's room and Darlene's room can be seen on the left side of the home just as they were.  It seemed that the dogs who aggressively barked across the street as I snapped a few pictures were the same dogs who barked aggressively each time I visited as a kid.  This was a moving day down memory lane!