fOtofair2006 Second Nature

These were taken at a beautiful old cemetery in Lumberton, NC a few weeks ago. I’ve always been drawn to old cemeteries for reasons that I don’t even want to explore, and this one was so gorgeous, and the day so perfect, that I stayed for a good long while while my son recuperated in the local hospital.

Many of the graves were from those who had died over 100 years ago, some as old as 160 years. There was one family plot that was guarded by the lovely Clare, who died at twenty-two. She watches over the graves of her parents and 5 or 6 siblings who never made it out of infancy, as well as their “beloved parrot, Polly”. It seems she was their only child to grow to young adulthood and she was obviously cherished.

I was drawn to the grave of two-year old Thomas Edgar who died at the turn of last century and whose little angel wings had been broken and fixed several times. I sat with him for a while and then walked, and then came back again. And again.

I also found that changing some of the photos to black and white made the details of the faces more prominent, as you didn’t get distracted by the colors.