I Know My People

Family. We complain about them, gripe about their shortcomings and sometimes wish they were anywhere but in our lives. But what would it be like to have no family, or none that you knew of?
A man named Willie Jamar knew. He lived in Decatur, Alabama for 40 years, at least, and no one knew his family. Parents, siblings--all a mystery. The Decatur Daily newspaper ran a story about Jamar's death and burial. Jamar was an African-American, but there were 12 white people at his funeral. They were former co-workers. No one else seemed to note Jamar's passing. Jamar lived in the same house on Wilson Street for over 30 years, held down a job at the local lumberyard, but other than this, no one knows much about him. He may have been born in 1927, but again, no one knows. He said he had a brother and sister, but they were both dead.
Somehow, he never mentioned his family and no one ever got around to asking him. The owners of the lumberyard helped cover the burial expenses and will erect a headstone. A co-worker delivered a 15-minute eulogy. In the South, especially, this is almost unheard of. Most people, black and white, know about their families. Whether of slave ancestry or free, most Southerners can tell you about who "their people" are. Family is vitally important to most of us and we can sit for hours, tracing genealogies that go back for generations. We are a story-telling people, and have tales of our forebears to tell. But Willie Jamar never told his stories. He was silent on his history. And his history died with him. The paper has an Internet edition, and I hope that putting the information on the World Wide Web will turn up some relations, some kinfolk, some of Willie Jamar's "people."
I count myself blessed beyond words. There's a church cemetery on a ridge top in Blount County, Alabama, where many of my "people" are. My paternal grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great grandparents, and my father all rest quietly, and with their people at Antioch. New Home Cemetery in Randolph County holds my people. Jasper City Cemetery in Walker County marks the resting places of my mother's people. I know who my people are. I know where they came from. My roots are deep in the red clay of Alabama.
O Lord, may the soul of Your servant, Willie Jamar, find rest in You. Dead and unknown to this world, he is nevertheless known to You, to the number of hairs on his head. May his soul find the peace that passeth all understanding and joy in the knowledge that You have known him all along. Amen.