It's very easy to get lost in the New Jersey Pinelands...acres and acres of dirt roads and protected forests.  But there are some homes scattered throughout the huge area...many are still occupied by the families of those that built them long before anyone heard of the Pinelands Preservation Act!

Recently my friend, a bagpiper, was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a man who had few family or friends.  The funeral was to be held at a cemetery in a remote area of the New Jersey Pinelands.
 
Now even if you've grown up in southern Ocean County, it's very easy to become lost on the back roads of the Pinelands.

Well, my bagpiper friend became lost.  When he finally arrived, at what he thought his destination, he was over an hour late.  

But he saw the backhoe and the crew eating lunch.  However, the hearse was nowhere in sight. 

He apologized to the workers for his tardiness and stepped up to the side of the open grave where he saw the vault lid already in place. 

He promised the workers he would not hold them up for long but this was the proper thing to do.
 
The workers were a little puzzled, but gathered around and continued eating their lunch.

My bagpiper friend said he played with his heart and soul.  He played with such emotion that the  workers began to weep.

He played and played, closing what turned out to be a lengthy session with Amazing Grace.  He walked to his car, quite pleased with himself. 
  
As he was approaching his car, he overheard one of the workers saying to another, "Sweet Jeezuz, Mary ‘n Joseph, I have never seen nothin’ like that before in the twenty years I’ve been putting in septic tanks!"