Dappled shade

Here is another beautiful marble gravestone in Bigelow Cemetery Prairie State Nature Preserve. It marks the west-facing grave of Lewis Fairbank (d. 1870), dappled with shade in the late afternoon.

The stone features the carving of a hand pointing to heaven. Like so many gravestones with this motif, the words “There is rest in Heaven” enrich the symbolism.

LEWIS FAIRBANK
DIED
May 7, 1870,
Æ. 65 y. 11 m. & 2 d.
The grave of Lovinia Fairbank (d. 1859), “wife of Lewis Fairbank,” is nearby.

Does this look like a weedy, overgrown cemetery to you? Look again. It is a nature preserve!

The cemetery still contains healthy colonies of prairie grasses and beautiful prairie wildflowers which once carpeted the Darby Plains. Some are considered rare, threatened or endangered in Ohio. [1]

I took one of my favorite graveyard photos in this cemetery last August, when the prairie dock was in bloom.

Bigelow Cemetery Prairie State Nature Preserve

[1] “Bigelow Cemetery PrairieState Nature Preserve.” Bigelow Cemetery Prairie State Nature Preserve. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. http://ohiodnr.com/location/bigelow_prairie/tabid/921/Default.aspx.