Vatter
John N. Raithel
1821 – 1889
Mutter
Barbara Kuhn Raithel
1827- 1887
Margaret Raithel
1858 – 1906
Marie Raithel
1863 – 1935
George Raithel
1848 – 1873
RAITHEL
There is a small 19-acre cemetery, the Wunder’s Cemetery, in Chicago, named after a German Lutheran minister, Heinrich Wunder, who had been pastor of the First St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chicago. He had served that congregation for over six decades.
Among the gravestones, large and small, tall and short, obelisks, tablets, and columns is a marble sculpture of two young women embracing. The first time I saw it, the monument was protected in a box with plexiglass. The plexiglass was scratched and stained, obscuring the finely carved details of sculpture. The draped figured have a garland of flowers in their laps.
The last time I saw the monument, the hazy plexiglass had been replaced with clear glass revealing the intricately carved figures—two sisters—Margaret and Marie. After the death of Marie, Margaret had the monument erected to honor her sister and their relationship. The sculpture remains as a monument to sisterly love.
Gravely Speaking 
What a beautiful monument. She would go on to live another 30 years without her beloved sister, how her absence must have been so heart-fully felt.
As this monument can attest, the love and commitment those sisters had for each other was real. I am sure those 30 years without Marie, were very difficult for Margaret.
Hello,
I’m wondering if you would interpret this grave marker?
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142686430/charles-a-mcdonald
Thank you! Margaret
In funerary symbolism the vacant chair symbolizes the loss of a loved one. The vacant bed would also represent that loss.
What is the blanket (?) looking like a tent at the end of the bed symbolize?
Symbolism in gravestones can have several meanings or none. The blanket at the end of the bed could just part of the sculpture to make the bed look slept in with the child removed. Often, though, a cloth like that, over the face of a mourning figure, or draped on a coffin or urn can represent the veil between the Earthly Realm and the Heavenly Realm.