Monday, June 28, 2010

Monday Visual Inspiration: Key West Cemetery

Apologies, folks--it's another image-heavy post here on WAD. This time, I'm featuring the cemetery at Key West.

Most of the cemetery looks like the images above and below--graves and stones and monuments nearly piled on top of each other as if there was a granite rummage sale at T.J. Maxx. When they weren't lumping graves together (above, around a monument to those lost in a boat explosion near Key West), they're stacking them up (below).

Some moments of elegant final repose. These flowering trees provide occasional respite from the heat as Guy and I hopped from shady spot to shady spot to tour the grounds.



What an odd little building! The plaque on the ground in front of this appears to have been poured and made recently by the grand-and great-grandchildren of those buried in the brick building. The plaque has little pieces of mosaic glass in it as well as hand-scrawled memories of "playing at the house in Key West" and "late night boat rides with Paw-Paw".



Some of these monuments have some exquisite detailing.


Some of them require a double take. That middle plaque on the right--what does that say...?


Well, I'll be damned. Someone actually put it on their tombstone.


Key West's cemetery had a special Jewish section and a special Catholic section. This Unity-Temple-flavored mausoleum was in the Catholic section. Again, I was actually moved by the details in this thing.


It was a lovely visit, if you can imagine actually having a good time in a cemetery. As the sun set on our last evening in Key West and Florida, I think Captain Knight's epitaph below says it all.



1 comment:

Miss Kitty said...

That has to be the most interesting cemetary I've ever seen. Nice pix!