More pictures from the weekend and a sad story

Just a slightly weird and morbid fact about me, I love cemeteries. I don't find them scary, I find them peaceful and tranquil. So when I saw this cemetery while strolling through the historic district of St. Francisville, I had to go in. I would love to be buried here, it was full of old trees, it was beautiful. I could have walked through it for hours. I love to look at the old graves, and another morbid fact about me, I always look for baby graves.



This particular one was the saddest one I have ever seen. The whole cemetery was very shaded, but there was a ray of sunlight shining directly on this one gravestone. It was very different and immediately grabbed my attention. It looked like a child's coffin, and in fact it held 4 children : ( It was very old, from the late 1800's. I just loved the little lamb sleeping on top of the cross covered coffin. It seemed so sweet and peaceful. I pray these poor parents at least had other children, I can't imagine losing 4 young babies, what heartache this mother must have gone through.

This was written on the front of the coffin. It says Little Ones of John W. and Belle Leake.

These two pictures are from one side of the coffin. The first one reads Louise, died May 4th, 1876, aged 8 months.

The second one reads Lucile, died Dec. 15, 1876, aged 23 days. That was two lost children in 1 year, can you imagine? : ( I wonder if there was an illness that caused the death of both of these babies?






The other side had the deaths of two more babies in 1872, there was a lot of erosion on this side of the coffin, so the names and ages were hard to read. The other end of the coffin read Our Little Ones in Heaven.

We are so blessed to live in a time and a country where the death of children isn't such a common occurrence. I have suffered 3 miscarriages, all in the first trimester, and that was devastating enough. I cannot even fathom losing many children. I realize how very blessed I am to have 7 healthy and happy children.


On to a happier subject. Here is one of the massive live oaks from the grounds of the Cottage Plantation. These trees make me so happy. I think I would chain myself to one of them if anyone ever wanted to cut them down. Can't you just imagine setting up a picnic underneath that tree and relaxing while your children ran around? My idea of heaven on earth!


Here is the small bridge we had to cross to get to the plantation. I forgot to mention that we saw 7 young deer crossing the road the first evening we arrived. I was trying to get my camera out of my purse, but wasn't quick enough before they disappeared back into the woods.