Friday, September 25, 2009

Graveyards, Part 2



The same afternoon, I made a trip to another cemetery, that of Mud Creek Baptist Church, a very large, modern church not to far from the tiny Mud Creek Church.  They are as different as night and day, as are their graveyards.  This one was larger, better tended, with most tombstones larger in size and more ornate.
(click on photos to enlarge)

There were unusual shapes and carvings, some very detailed and elaborate:





















A memorial stone:
:
I find it interesting that they listed this man's name, but not his wife's name:

Someone admired this woman very much:


 There were whole family plots, some with very sad stories to be read:









This must have been Drake's first wife, but not the mother of his children:



And this may have been another wife, but also not the mother of ALL his children, though maybe one or two of them:


There were a lot of Drakes in this cemetery. Here are a few more:


I love what they said about this Drake lady:

And then I stumbled upon this gravesite:

She was my patient.  It was very startling to come upon her stone--I had no idea she was buried here.  I pass her house almost every day; she always decorated for the seasons and I used to look forward to seeing what she had up next.  Dixie would have had cute autumn decorations on her front porch by this time.  It appears her husband still lives there, but these days the porch stays bare.

(To Be Continued)

5 comments:

julieQ said...

I have a fascination with old, old cemetaries too. You found some old stones! I was saddened at your seeing your patient, that has happened to me too.

HarryJack's Mom said...

Oh, I just loved your pix and stories. The children break my heart, but it truly stopped when I thought of you stumbling upon your patient's stone. Now I'm sad for her seasonal porch and wondering if I'll ever stumble upon one of my former students in this way.

Still looking forward to the next installment and all the cool things you are planning :-) Happy weekend!

Lori in South Dakota said...

I love to read tombstones, and wonder if all those children died in the flue epidemic about that time. My neighbor lost 4 of his siblings in it. And my grandparents were just born when that was going on, and lived thru it. Funny to think about it. Stumbling on a former patient and thinking about her porch--that's unusual. I loved the mountain woman stone.

MightyMom said...

flu epidemic was 1918.

I was sitting in church a couple weeks ago....during the prayer inentions they called out a name of my patient from a couple weeks before in the "for the repose of the souls of" section. That was a SHOCK. I didn't know he'd died or that he went to my church. Like my 2 worlds had collided suddenly. Left me a little sad and breathless.

jacquie said...

cemeteries can be such interesting places to visit. the kids and i used to do grave rubbings and then talk about what the people's lives might have been like.