Moss-Covered Stone (107/365)

“…and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.

Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), Russian-born U.S. novelist, poet. Laughter in the Dark, ch. 1 (1938). The beginning of the novel.

TIME:  9:43 AM
PLACE:  Cemetery
SUBJECT:  Moss on grave marker

I am a member at the "Find A Grave” website.  In the past I have contributed several memorials as part of my genealogical pursuits.  As a member, one can volunteer to contribute photos from other members requests of specific gravesites.  Yesterday, there were a couple of requests for photos at a nearby cemetery.  I claimed them and this morning, I went and took the pictures.  One of the requested headstones was for a husband who died in 1861 at the age of 53 and his wife, who 1901 at the age of 82.  Their maker had moss growing on it – it looked so beautiful in the shadows and light of the morning.

Cemetery Sentinels (237/365)

 
Loin des sepultures celebres
Vers un cimitiere isole
Mon coeur, comme un tambour voile
Va battant des marches funebres.

To the solemn graves,
near a lonely cemetery,
my heart like a muffled drum is beating funeral marches.

  Charles Pierre Baudelaire (French poet, critic and translator, 1821-1867) Les Fleurs du Mal. Le Guignon

TIME:  12:04 PM & 12:10 PM
PLACE:  Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, MO
SUBJECT:  Headstones & Moss-covered angel

I went to some cemeteries in St. Louis to seek out gravesites of my relatives.  The St. Louis Archdiocese has a wonderful website where you can search for burials.  The results will include, among other information, the cemetery, section and lot number of the internment.  At the cemetery office, additional information about the plots are often available.  The workers at Calvary Cemetery are very helpful.  I have been to this cemetery several times and find it fascinating.  After finding my latest genealogical gravesites, I wandered through the older Italian section.  That section had rows with many large statues on top of the stones as seen in the first photo.  About half the stones had porcelain portraits. The burials in this section, ranged from the late 1900s to the early to mid 1950s.  There were many children and young people buried here.  When I retuned home, I was able to trace several of the internments back to death certificates on the Missouri State Archives website.  All those people were living, breathing human beings; they touched someone’s life and were loved at one time.  Now, all that is left to prove that they were once here is the stone that marks their final resting place.  It makes me think…100 years from now, will there be a person viewing my grave in the same way?  It is a very humbling thought and can help me put my day-to-day frustrations into some much needed perspective.