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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Seventeen: Memories in Metal and Stone: How monuments, sculpture, and tombs express ideas. > At rest, Jacksonville, Oregon, 2009
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19-JUN-2009

At rest, Jacksonville, Oregon, 2009

The 32 acre Jacksonville Cemetery is a Victorian treasure, its gravestones often echoing the sadness of untimely deaths. I was drawn to the shining star and open gate on Myra Simpkins’ stone, which also notes that her “bridal song and burial hymn were sung in one short year.” Her stone was brighter than the others around it, which fade here into the darkness of time itself.

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Phil Douglis07-Aug-2015 19:43
It is always a treat to hear from you, Dave. As you can tell, I have a perpetual interest in such subjects as this. The presence of life ("renewal") amidst the symbols of death is always important in such imagery. And yes, I like the idea of those receding grave stones as "stories receding into time," as well. Disorder is the stuff of life, and here it is the stuff of death, too. Thanks, as always, for this comment.
Dave Wyman06-Aug-2015 06:07
No matter how long or short, life is all too transient to most of us. The grave is surrounded by wonderful greenery, which means life renews. The fallen leaves say the same thing.

I like the composition, Phil, whether it was conscious on your part or not. I like looking through the trees to the right of Myra's grave, looking at graves receding in the distance, with the brief stories they contain receding into time. I like seeing the tangle of trees and shrubs. Like this cemetery, life isn't alway in perfect order.
Phil Douglis04-Jul-2009 22:30
Good point, Rose. Many brides died in childbirth, right into the 20th century. Pregnancies often disguised other ailments. For example, Theodore Roosevelt lost his first wife in childbirth in 1884 due to an undiagnosed case of kidney failure. Other diseases took the young as well. Typhoid was very common in those times. We take our medications for granted, but in 1892, they did not have antibiotics or extensive immunizations. Lives were much shorter in the 19th century, resulting in sad stories such as this one.
sunlightpix04-Jul-2009 06:39
How touching. I'm only guessing, but in the days before women had access to contraception and family planning, childbirth was a dangerous event. Perhaps she married and then died in childbirth. RIP Myra.
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