This stone pulls at my heartstrings. A young woman went away to Western Female Seminary in Oxford, Ohio, in the fall of 1866, and by early January of 1867, she passed away. I don’t know what she died of and I know almost nothing about her. I know it’s fanciful and not necessarily true, but I imagine her as I was myself at that age – living away from my parents at school, making new friends, and having my worldview change as my mind expanded. (Of course, for all I know, her family lived nearby and this is all in my head.) I imagine a young woman sick and dying, separated from her family, and having to be buried in the local cemetery rather than in the family plot back home.
