Angel of Grief

Photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran aka Carptrash 17:52, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps you have seen a weeping angel—sometimes a nearly life-sized sculpture—on an earthly gravestone. It is most likely based on the sculpture “Angel of Grief” by William Wetmore Story (b. 1819, d. 1895), an American sculptor and poet. The original marks the graves of Story and his wife Emelyn at the Protestant cemetery in Rome, Italy.

I was surprised to come upon a full-sized weeping angel while searching for another grave at small country cemetery in Union County, Ohio. This angel weeps at the grave of Nancy K. Faulk (b. 1946, d. 2002). Nancy’s angel still holds the rose that Story’s angel has dropped.

  

NANCY K. FAULK
July-2-1946  May-2-2002
Loving Wife
Mother & Grandmother

Set into the ground to the left of the angel is a simple plaque with a familiar verse:

NO FAREWELL WORDS WERE SPOKEN
NO TIME TO SAY GOOD-BYE
YOU WERE GONE BEFORE WE KNEW IT
AND ONLY GOD KNOWS WHY

View more angels of grief on Flickr.

Jerome Township Cemetery, Union County, Ohio