Maria Schaller was born on October 20, 1898. Maria died on a spring day in 1899, not yet having reached the age of six months. Her grieving parents placed this monument in her memory, then set out to prepare their land for another season of growing crops. Life went on. I happened upon Maria’s marker 107 years later and photographed it on a sunny day with a light breeze in a quiet cemetery amid rolling fields and small farms in northern
Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2006 James Jordan.
2 comments:
I've always thought that graveyards really put things in ultimate perspective. When I used to commute to work into downtown Chicago, there was this one spot where five lanes of traffic always seemed to grind to a halt along side a huge cemetery. The only thing separating the road from the memorials was a chain linked fence. On the one side were all of these hundreds, maybe thousands of lives once lived. On the other, the smoggy, striving, stress, and pressure of life. Neither really taking notice of one another, but each firmly planted in their realities.
Our family cemetery is full of baby graves like this. They are a testimony to the hardness of life back then.
I voted for you on BLOG VILLAGE today.
Post a Comment