Graves

Our Darling

The two words parents have always reached for when the words run out.

Vote for PurePhotography.Com in the Maxim Photographers contest
A carved lamb resting on the Our Darling children's marker in the grass

A lamb asleep on a pillow of stone, with Our Darling carved across the top. This is the oldest language in the cemetery — the marker parents chose when they had to bury a child and could not find a sentence big enough. The lamb means innocence; the sleeping means only sleeping.

I took it twice, once standing back and once down close, because the violets had gathered around the base and I could not decide which told it better. The stone has been holding this vigil for well over a century. The family name on it has worn away first.