Since this is Vermont, the headstones are made of marble and still very well preserved. Most of them are from the 18th and 19th century. Here's a cheerful angel with a big heart; are the two doves on either side added to give additional uplift to the dear departed as she wings her way up to heaven ?
Love the little bosom of this one
A rather dour and grumpy face, but check out what's under the chin. I suppose it's supposed to be wings, but I interpret it as a big bow tie., especially since there's a neat row of buttons underneath.
Pretty flowers and a little billet doux - is she taking it with her to send a note back once she gets there ?
The inscription over the face reads " Remember Death " , but when I visit all those graves, I remember Life.
I like to imagine all the stories of the people who are buried there, what made them happy and what made them sad . Often you can piece together the story of someone's life by the surrounding stones - a baby who died or several small children taken from their families by what illness ? Often there are husbands who mourn their wives , but keep on marrying again and again. What dramas were lived, what gossip and meanness is buried here, what quiet, sometimes noble lives were played out in this little village ?
Their headstones , carved and placed with such care and - I believe in most cases - love, call out " Remember me, remember that I was alive, don't forget me..."
1 comment:
WHat a lovely, lovely photograph. I feel the same way in cemeteries, not creeped out at all, but overwhelmed by the sense of lives that have been lived and all rest there waiting to be discovered by us. The bow tie headstone was especially neat!
xoxEm
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