Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota

This statue in the Lakewood Cemetery at Minneapolis, Minnesota, shows a woman holding an open book. The open book is a common symbol found on gravestones. The motif can represent the Book of Life with the names of the just registered on its pages or it can symbolize the Word of God in the form of the Bible.

Here, the opposing pages of the spread display Greek letters—alpha on the left and omega on the right. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and omega is the last—they are respectively the “A” and “Z”. In this case, alpha and omega are a reference to the Biblical passages found in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 1, Verse 8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty”.