Some epitaphs are lengthy and give an unusually large amount of information for being on a tombstone.\u00a0 This is true of the sentences carved into the stone that marks the Female Stranger’s grave.\u00a0 This tomb is almost a tourist site, part of the colonial heritage of Alexandria, Virginia where we live.\u00a0 I suspect many people visit it.\u00a0 I happened to discover it on October 14, 2007, the exact anniversary of the Female Stranger’s death.\u00a0 Here’s what I wrote at the time, followed by the sad tale told on the stone:<\/p>\n
This epitaph is on a grave-sized stone that lies horizontally on six legs<\/a>, like a table.\u00a0 When I stopped there I found a slightly wilted but recently fresh bouquet of flowers on the table, and at the eastern or foot end, four large hedge apples and a white, ceramic, one-liter pitcher trimmed in forest green with flowers on the front.\u00a0 Here are the words engraved on the ston<\/a>e<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n To the memory of a To him gave all the Prophets witness that through his name The first thing that moved me then was that somebody had honored the memory of the Female Stranger, almost 200 years after her death.\u00a0 After reading the epitaph, I wanted to be one of them.<\/p>\n The words raise more questions than they answer.\u00a0 If the stone was placed there by the husband and her age was so precisely known, then the woman who died would not have been\u00a0 a stranger.\u00a0 Why would he bury his wife but keep her name a secret?\u00a0 The poor woman’s identity and the story surrounding her demise is a local mystery, never solved.\u00a0 Most accounts report that a ship docked off the Alexandria Harbor from which a small boat was rowed ashore bearing a man and a young woman who was very ill.\u00a0 She wore a heavy, dark veil even in that sweltering Potomac August.\u00a0 The man called on a doctor and two women to help care for the sick woman, but he swore them to secrecy about anything they might discover while helping.\u00a0 The woman died after a few months, the man soon left and either returned every October for about ten years to tend the grave or else never came back.\u00a0 The doctor and the two women kept their promise, taking whatever they had seen and learned about the poor woman to their own graves.\u00a0 I think this unusually interesting epitaph lends itself as the seed for a story.\u00a0 Any ideas?<\/p>\n On my list of things to do someday when I have the time: make and have framed a rubbing of this stone.\u00a0 Maybe when I write and publish a novel based on this epitaph, I will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some epitaphs are lengthy and give an unusually large amount of information for being on a tombstone.\u00a0 This is true of the sentences carved into the stone that marks the Female Stranger’s grave.\u00a0 This tomb is almost a tourist site, … Continue reading
\nFEMALE STRANGER
\nWhose mortal sufferings terminated
\non the 14th day of October,1816.
\nAged 25 years and 8 months.
\nThis stone is placed here by her disconsolate
\nHusband in whose arms she sighed out her
\nlatest breath and who under God
\ndid his utmost even to soothe the cold,
\ndead ear of death.
\nHow loved how valued once avails thee not
\nto whom related or by whom begot
\nA heap of dust alone remains of thee
\nTis all thou art and all the proud shall be.<\/p>\n
\nwhosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
\nActs 10th Chap. 43rd verse<\/p>\n