Sentence:  It was not as though she noted clearly that her nephews had not been to see her for ten years , not since their last journey eastward to witness their Uncle Izaak being lowered into the rocky <WSD>soil</WSD> ; that aside from due notification of certain major events in their lives ( two marriages , two births , one divorce ) , Christmas and Easter cards of the traditional sort had been the only thin link she had with them through the widowed years . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock