Today I would like to change the pace of this blog a bit and tell a story that isn’t funny but rather completely mystifying. It was single-handedly the strangest thing that has ever happened to me and I have had a lot of strange things happen in my life!
On this particular day I was out with two friends. I was trying to console one of these friends who had just endured a massive loss in her life. The three of us were all taphopiles – that is we all loved to walk through cemeteries. It’s an interesting hobby for interesting people. Today we had decided to go on this little walk because it was calming. There’s nothing like the still of a cemetery to ease a frazzled mind.
We had decided to go to the Lowell Cemetery in Lowell Massachusetts which is famous for it’s exquisite statuary and various other grave monuments including the Ayer Lion who has captured the heart of many through his profoundly sad expression and pose. We all loved that damn lion and he was in part the reason we had decided on this particular cemetery.
All went well. We were able to find the lion and “Witch Bonnie” who overlooks him from across the way and enjoy them for a moment before wandering off. I’d already been consoling my friend for a few days and now it was time to let someone else take a turn so I slipped behind and let them walk off together. They took a few minutes to sit down and discuss the situation while I wandered by myself.
When they came back to the main path I was waiting respectfully as well as looking at the statuary and stones. There are many there in the form of women. Some are angels, some are women in cloaks in a clear state of mourning, other’s like “Witch Bonnie” strike a more theatrical pose. So I wasn’t surprised when I walked by yet another statue of a woman that towered above me in pristine marble. I was drawn to her but not in the peaceful way I usually was drawn to such things. In fact as I looked up I became sick to my stomach. This monument wasn’t in a peaceful pose and did not have an expression of sadness or serenity. She was wearing long robes, one arm stretched out at her side, the other above her head, she gazed upwards with an expression of absolute anguish and terror.
My friends had caught up with me and were now looking up too and saying exactly the same thing. “What IS that?! It’s horrible!” And without thinking I said, “It’s a lost soul.” And everyone shuddered. My friend wanted to get away from it so we left. The image remained burned in my head for years. It disturbed me that badly. Who would put something so negative in a cemetery?! A place of rest! I was so rattled by emotion that I didn’t look at the inscription (which is very strange for me.)
These questions continued to pop back into my mind so several years later I made my way back. I was alone and had all the time in the world so I headed to the part of the cemetery where I believed I’d seen this monument and low and behold there was nothing even remotely similar to what I had seen there. Maybe I was confused, maybe it was in another section, so I searched the entire cemetery that day and again came up empty handed.
I called my friend and asked if she remembered that day and specifically seeing that stone and she said yes, she did. I asked if she’d return with me to find it and one beautiful summer day we made our way out there and again could not find it. By now this was bothering her as much as it was me so she called the third party that was with us that day and asked him if he remembered and he also said yes and he knew exactly where it was. Cool! So we organized an expedition with all three of us and he led us exactly where I’d been looking before and low and behold there was nothing there.
Since then I have looked through the photos on Find A Grave and not surprisingly it’s not pictured. I have no idea what we witnessed that day or why. The whole event still bothers me but I have no answers. If I were alone I would just think my memory was mistaken or something else had happened but to have three witnesses and nothing to show for it continues to haunt me even years later.
