Each fall, unless the world is entirely out of balance, I make my annual fall trek down at Ryerson Station State Park. While I'm there, I pay my respects at the old Chess Family Cemetery.
Surely this was my 12th or 13th time on that hallowed ground. And yet, it was the first time I'd ever noticed the little watertight plastic box beneath the headstone of a child's grave, one Freeman Jacobs. Click on this photo to see it.
There are many children buried in this cemetery, each tiny headstone a monument to a life now long-forgotten. O the lost tales of woe that these stones allude to...but never tell.
Some years ago, I found that the Grimm Family lost, I believe, five children and then the mother. The father does not appear to be buried here. There is a Grimm Road nearby; it's probably where their farm was located.
The box beneath Freeman's headstone contained a pen and notebook so that visitors to the cemetery could write their names and the dates that they were here. Many leave comments and, for some reason, little items like spare keys or cheap toys.
A heartbroken mother once stood at this stone and tried to restrain her tears. Now, no matter how deep her anguish ran, there's nothing left here but a stone...and a tiny body underneath. No one can tell us how he died, or what kind of child he was, or what his life was like while it lasted.
And another, this one with a foot stone.
This is the front of Freeman Jacobs' grave. The box with the notebook is under this headstone.
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