Greenbush Cemetery, Lafayette, Indiana

HERRMAN REINHARDT

BORN JULY 18, 1866.

DIED MARCH 17, 1887.

WHERE IMMORTAL SPIRITS REIGN

THERE WE SHALL MEET

AGAIN.

Life is fragile, especially young life.  Many funerary motifs represent children–shoes, seedpods, cribs, cherubs–but one of the most common is the hanging bud.  Often this symbol is coupled with the epitaph, “Budded on Earth, To bloom in Heaven”.

The broken rose bud displayed on this zinc monument represents the flower that did not bloom into full blossom, the life that was cut short before it had a chance to grow to adulthood.