Forest Lawn

Sorry for the erratic posting. I’ve been on a writing tear of a different kind lately. So anyway, I’m up in Buffalo this weekend and will hopefully get some cool new photos. Until then, here are some photos from my previous trips to Forest Lawn.

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Faces of Spring Grove Cemetery

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Faces of Spring Grove Cemetery

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A boy and his dog

The most visited graves at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio, are, not surprisingly, those of the brave early aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wrights are world-famous for their accomplishments, and countless people travel to see their final resting places. But if you ask the Woodland Cemetery staff to name the most visited grave of a person who was not famous in life, they will point you to the famous statue of a boy and a dog that marks the grave of little Johnny Morehouse. In 1860 (so the legend says), five year old Johnny, a cobbler’s son, was playing when he fell into the canal. He drowned, and when he was buried, his faithful dog refused to leave the graveside. The dog stands forever immortalized in stone, guarding over a peacefully sleeping little boy, a paw extended to shield him from harm.

The statue is hard to photograph for all of the trinkets left over and around it. Most are children’s toys or books, things that Johnny left behind all too soon over 150 years ago.

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Mustaches are in

Sometimes, I think about completely random things when I look at a piece of statuary. I’ll be walking around the cemetery, photographing things and considering what I might want to write about and – WHAM – out of nowhere, my train of thought will derail completely. I was reviewing my photos from Gettysburg, thinking deep weighty thoughts about bloody battles, when I suddenly realized what fabulous mustaches many of the statues had. I need help. But so do all of you, because you’re still reading. Anyway, since you’ve come this far, check it out and I think you’ll agree with me.

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Random statuary

This statue sits in part of Markillie and St. Mary Cemeteries in Hudson, Ohio. It’s rather small – no more than a few feet high. (I wish I had photographed something else next to it for scale. It is also extremely unclear what family plot it is supposed to go with.

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A Grave Concern: Book in hand

The bibliophile in me loves cemetery statues holding books. As I’ve described before, the book as a funerary symbol can represent the Bible or the Book of Life. The above statue tops the Ely monument in Lake View Cemetery. Below are more examples from Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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A Grave Concern: Unique sculpture

This sculpture, to the memory of Joseph Turkaly, is unlike any I have seen before. And there’s a good reason for that – it is his own creation. Turkaly was a Croatian-born sculptor who made his adult home in Cleveland Heights. I haven’t been able to determine the title to the piece at this time.

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A Grave Concern: Pieta

The Della plot in Lake View Cemetery is marked with a pieta – a statue of the Virgin Mary with the dead Christ in her arms. The word Pieta means “pity.”

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A Grave Concern: Cold piggies

It’s funny how clearly experience can shape our perceptions. I sat down to write just after spending a cold, blustery fall day outdoors. While I was able to keep most of me warm, the shoes and socks I had chosen were inadequate, and my toes felt like they were freezing most of the day. So when I got home and started flipping through my photos to decide what to write about, I began to focus on how many of the statues are portrayed as barefoot. I’m sure this was a symbolic decision, but looking the statues in the cold Cleveland fall and winter with unshod feet, all I think is “brrr!”

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