For me, the most poignant and tender gravestones are those for children.  The loss of a child is devastating, a loss that even time cannot heal.  And, many cemeteries have special sections specifically for child or infant burials—sometimes labeled “Babyland” or something similar.  Often these sections are centered around a sculpture of Jesus surrounded by children—or sometimes a lamb.

In the Resurrection Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin, a sculpture atop a columbarium features a mother and father who have lost a child to death.  The mother is doubled over with grief, her head in her hand, while the father longingly reaches for his child—a child who appears in the sculpture as glass.  The light clay-colored sculptures of the parents contrasted against the clear sculpture of the child is haunting—as if she is disappearing before our very eyes—a ghost figure.