OUR MOTHER

SARAH A. MILLER

Born

July 3, 1825.

Died

July 26, 1892.

The rounded-top white marble tablet in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, in Lexington, Virginia, of Sarah A. Miller has turned gray as it has weathered.  The bas-relief sculpture in the top of the gravestone depicts the hand of God holding a broken chain. The broken link of chain represents a life that has ended. This symbolism dates back to medieval times when people believed that the soul could be held to the body by a golden chain. Once the chain was broken, the soul took flight and rose from the body leaving Earth and ascended to Heaven.