Fairview Cemetery: Two Trips

Saturday Justin and I went to Fairview Cemetery.  He was very patient and didn't laugh at me when I had to squat in weird positions to get good shots.  It's a beautiful cemetery.  For those who know the area, this is where General Harry C. Trexler and his wife are buried. 

There are a great deal of angels there but a lot are damaged.  One of the largest is missing both an arm and her head.  One small angel is missing a wing.  A bench was knocked over as well.  I hate graveyard vandalism horribly but then am also torn because these damaged statues provide interesting images.  I just tell myself it is time damage even though I know it is not.

The ground is sinking in quite a few places and at least two slab style graves are starting to cave a bit.  This makes it incredibly important NOT to walk in front of a tombstone where a body is buried.  Most of the old caskets were wood.  As the wood rots it collapses inward.  If you're standing on that area...down you go.  It's not nice.  My foot sank a bit along the corner of the slab grave.  In the morning I'm going to call the caretaker and tell him/her which tombs are starting to degrade a bit.

I took Maddie and Reilley with me on the second visit.  I found a very frilly sort of Victorian child's dress and took some shots with her and some of the angels.  It may seem morbid but I am drawn to the children's graves the most. Perhaps because of my own past.  Maybe because such care was taken to remember these souls that were only on this earth for such a brief moment; not even a blink.  Looking at the names, the dates, the ages, just the ones marked "Our Baby" with no name gives them immortality.

"The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long."
- William Shakespeare, King Lear, 5.3.325

My six year old and I visit a boneyard

This will probably bore most but Maddie and I had such a good time this morning I wanted to share it.  We left early so we could have the morning light and so it was cooler.  Oddly enough, Maddie was excited to see the graves.  She knows about "death" in that the body stops working.  We bury the body for "rest" and the soul goes to where it's happiest.  She read a good deal of the stones (names, wars, etc...) on her own and loved the statues.  She knew not to step on the stones and to try and avoid stepping on the space in front of the stones.  She picked little flowers (wild cornflowers, dandelions, clover flowers) and put them on really old graves because they didn't have any and no one comes to visit them.  She also helped pick up some random bottle and garbage when she saw it (she pointed it out and I picked it up...no dirty hands for the kiddie). We also repaired a Civil War marker.  It unscrewed and the flag fell.

 We met the caretaker.  He was a nice man named Bob and he shared a good deal of history with us.  There is a section for the children who died of a died of an influenza epidemic.  He told me where to find the first grave dug in 1856.  He showed us where the only Congressional Medal of Honor recipient was located.  He gave permission for grave rubbings but he asked that if a grave is in really poor shape to use my discretion.

 It was a really nice morning and I want to do it again.  I really need to go back because you can't investigate every gravestone with a six year old that has had enough.  You can only look at so much in an hour and a half and my camera ran out of batteries before I could finish.  I need to go back and do macro work.