Nearly ten years ago, my oldest daughter, who was eleven at the time, said she wanted to start a blog.  I said, I would, too, as a sign of solidarity.  I hoped if we both blogged together it would encourage her writing and creativity.  So, my wife who is far more technical than I am, set each of us up with a WordPress blogsite.  As it turned out, my daughter wrote one blogpost and quit—I am still writing and now this is my one-thousandth post. 

I was going to repost my very first blogpost in honor of the event, but my youngest daughter suggested something different— “Why not write about your favorite gravestone?”  Well, that is a tough one—there are so many from which to choose!  But it got me to thinking about my first trip to Savannah, Georgia.  I had just read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.  The image intrigued me—right in the center of the book cover was the statue made famous by the book—The Bird Girl sculpted by Sylvia Shaw Judson in 1936.  There she stands with her arms out holding a bowl in each hand like scales—weighing, I suppose—good and evil.  The statue is plain.  The girl is expressionless as she stands there, with her head titled slightly—not knowing whether it is a nod to the virtuous or the villainous.  I couldn’t wait to see it in its natural habitat—the graveyard. 

So, after I arrived in the charming city of Savanah, I checked into the hotel and headed for the famed Bonaventure Cemetery to see it.  Turns out one of the funerary memorials I like the most isn’t in a cemetery at all.  Because so many sightseers flocked to see The Bid Girl after the book and subsequent movie was released, the family, who had concerns about damage to the statue, had it moved.  Now it can be seen in the Telfair Museum of Art, and miniature reproductions of the statue for sale throughout the downtown area.  I had chased around to see it and was not disappointed.  After, I decided to treat myself to lunch at Clary’s.  A favorite place to eat described in the book.  The café has a stained-glass tribute to the statue which I enjoyed as I ate a hearty lunch. My trip was complete!