Off the Beaten Path in Green-Wood Cemetery, Part 1 -

To officially kick off the Cemetery Season, I wandered through Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery for hours, purposely not finding my way to my favorite monuments. I wanted to discover the parts that I had never explored, the parts I had passed along the way. Within this quest, I found so much more. In this first post, new mourning ladies and moving epitaphs. In the next, haunting photo memorials and surprising secrets… off the beaten path at Green-Wood on a perfect Fall day.

There are a couple of Angels of Grief in Green-Wood, but I have never seen this one before. And she is spectacular. She is the Cassard Angel, the third I have discovered in the cemetery. Her woeful beauty marks the resting place of grave of Blanche Aurelia Cassard.

Delighted to see that her face was sculpted well though hidden by her stance.

Every angle of this angel is impressive

Love her bangs.

Other Angels of Grief in Green-Wood include O’Donohue’s and this one (I will check the monument name when I return. She doesn’t have as many references on the world wide web despite her beauty.)

This might be the saddest grave in Green-Wood. A small headstone that reads “Our Christmas Gift 1873.” After some research I learned that here lies the infant son of Theodore Cuyler. He lived only 10 days.

Prior to the heartache of that loss was another. Theodore Cuyler’s son Georgie died from Scarlet Fever at age 5. As reported by one of my favorite blogs, Theodore wrote a book about the loss entitled “The Empty Crib, A Memorial of Little Georgie.” 💔

Inscribed on the monument’s side:

He look up at his mother and whispered, “Does Jesus love me? What will He say when he first sees me?” All through that April Sabbath with head on the mother’s breast the sweet child murmured of Jesus ’till the sun was low in the west. Then the door of Heaven opened that had been ajar all day. And our darling alone could answer what will Jesus say.

I found lots of mushrooms growing in the damp green grass.