child to child

 

 

A child's grave is always sad but to find a tribute placed over 150 years after the death is poignant.  In 1858, the these three children--ages 7, 6 and 5-- died within months of each other  No wonder the parents erected a pillared monument with statues of the children within.  The Magnolia Cemetery, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, dates back to 1852 and the Battle of Baton Rouge.

 

Magnolia Cemetery

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

2.1.2017

guns and babies

 

You have to wonder about the planning (or lack thereof) that positioned the military portion of the cemetery adjacent to Babyland. 

 

Masonic Cemetery

Trinidad, Colorado

8.20.2016



allured to brighter worlds

 

Of course I visited the Bonaventure Cemetery when I was in Savannah in April (and yes, the statue from the "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" has been relocated to the Telfair Museum of Art).  However, the marker for Corinne Elliot Lawton is a haunting example of Southern Gothic.  Corinne died in 1877 and the story goes she drowned herself in the nearby river rather than marry a man other than the one she loved -- although her obituary cited a brief illness.  This marble memorial by Palermo and Corinne's legendary love story generate much interest.

 

 

 

Bonaventure Cemetery

Savannah, Georgia

4.20.2016

ola, ora and otis

 

The odds of triplets is about .01%, perhaps higher in 1909.  Otis and Ora did not survive the birth; Ola lived about two weeks. After 107 years, who still puts flowers on the grave?

 

Collier Cemetery

Bledsoe County, Tennessee

5.28.2016

twin spires

 

Throughout the IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) Cemetery, a handful of Spanish Colonial style mini-cathedrals mark gravesites.  More traditional markers, including Woodman of the World, fill the cemetery.  This Plainview Cemetery's oldest burial is the town founder in about 1880.  In this century, the cemetery received a Texas Historic Cemetery designation.  The utility poles replicate the skyward-bound twin spires.

 

IOOF Cemetery

Plainview, Texas

2.27.2016

supplications for the deceased

 

Religious statuary offers prayers of supplication for the deceased.  Family dynamics in the cemetery interest me.  Here grandmother, father and mother gravesites are marked with elaborate stones, yet what could be the only son's grave bears only a small metal marker.  This cemetery in Muleshoe is also called the "Old Cemetery" not to be confused with the newer memorial park on the other side of the highway.  The land was donated in 1918 for burials of victims of the influenza epidemic.  The cemetery was forsaken until acts of vandalism about 20 years ago renewed the cemetery association and interest in upkeep.  Alas, it was too late for the Rosas markers.

 

Old Cemetery

Muleshoe, Texas

8.29.2015

May God shelter your soul,

kind love, and sympathy.

 

New Braunfels Cemetery

Peace Avenue

New Braunfels, Texas

5.1.2015

entombment

 

The bars on this sepulcher give a literal meaning to the term "entombment."  The window may let in light, but not hope.  The Stephenson crypt has been in the City of Lubbock cemetery since before my high school days.  This was the "haunted grave" because, during our nocturnal visits, the car lights would be reflected by the marble giving forth an eerie apparition.  Today's scene was sad.  It appears no family members have visited in a long time.  Some of the vandalism inside hasn't been fixed and trash is piled in the corners.  The silk flowers must have been left by a casual visitor such as I.

 

City of Lubbock Cemetery

Lubbock, Texas