Somerford Township Cemetery, Madison County, Ohio
NAOMI G.
Daughter of
J & E. YARDLEY
DIED
July 5, 1849
AGED
5Y, 2M, & 8 D.
A sister reposes underneath this sod
A sister to memory dear and dear
to God;
Rejoice yet shed the sympathetic tear,
My little sister lies buried here.
Many funerary motifs represent children–shoes, seedpods, cribs, cherubs–but one of the most common is the hanging bud. The broken bud 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.
The rounded-top white marble tablet gravestone of five-year old Naomi Yardley in the Somerford Township Cemetery, displays the bud hanging from a sprig with three leaves.
On this gravestone, the hanging bud is completely detached and laying underneath the twig. The broken bud represents Naomi’s short life of only five years. The leaves here represent the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Perhaps, though, the most poignant aspect of this gravestone is the tender epitaph from one sister to another.
Gravely Speaking 
This doesn’t look like Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Columbus, OH. Mt. Calvary wasn’t open to burials until the early 1870s, although it later became the removal site for three earlier Catholic Cemeteries in the Columbus area (none open as early as 1840). The background looks more like Green Lawn (Columbus), where several other people with this surname are buried and which also contains markers for relocations from other cemeteries, but I can’t find a reference to Naomi G. Yardley anywhere. Can you please verify?
Zelda–you are correct. I mislabeled the gravestone–it was actually in the Somerford Township Cemetery in Madison County, Ohio. I will correct the mistake. thank you for your keen attention to detail–I appreciate it. Douglas