Monday, May 18, 2009

On A Child’s Headstone:


When my son died in a car accident, almost ten years ago, he was no longer a child. He was twenty-five years old and no longer living at home. But, always and forever, he will be my little baby boy.

The first reaction I had to hearing of his death was a pain in my uterus that almost floored me. My body knew where the first connection to him was and it felt like it tore in two when he was gone.

In honor of my son’s birthday, I give you children’s headstones.













































I made the pictures black and white so you could see them better.
I had to remove the names. And the one is so old I had to do an outline of the little tiny body, no longer than seven inches, laying on a pillow on the top of the stone so you could see it.



















The child climbing the rocks is life sized. (It took some playing with the photo manipulator to get to see him here. There was a green patina on the stone that made it blend in with the background when it was in color.)


















(This one is my avatar.) The boy child turned angel is in a local cemetery, all the others are in Boston.


















The children under glass are life sized white marble statues of the children buried there. (It is said that some of the statues of children in the cemeteries were made from their death masks. A common practice in the Victorian period.) A boy in a boat with his toys and a girl standing with flowers in her hand. They were their mother’s only children and their mothers are now buried next to them.

6 comments:

rabbitIng said...

I can only imagine your unending sorrow.

"From Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:27, 1850:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."

my heart goes out to you.

Anonymous said...

The two under glass are absolutely amazing.

There is something that is always so heart breaking about children's sections of cemeteries. My grandfather was one of 13 sets of twins. So in the local cemetery where he lived there were 25 of his siblings buried. Until his death he would go and place flowers on all of there tombs on special occasions. They all had death mask tomb stones and a poem written to the lost child.

Since my great grandmother felt she would never have a child live. Sadly the faces are just about washed away with time and vandals today. I have a few tin type photos in my personal collection.

Unknown said...

beautiful

Grace Garton said...

the two statues encased in glass is amazing, I've never seen anything like this before.
I've also never heard of death mask tombs, wow that would be strange to see.
Thank you for sharing these.

Children Headstones said...

This is really interesting take on the concept. I never thought of it that way. I came across this site recently which I think will be of great use Children Headstones . Have a look!

Anonymous said...

I just stumbled upon your site. What a fine memorial for your son. I hope your sense of loss has diminished with time.