A true gentleman in the Chicago cemetery!

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IMG_4728Recently, I was taking a walk in a Chicago cemetery. It seemed like the normal cemetery with all sorts of tombstones, UNTIL I reached this statue of a young boy. It was so amazing! What a lovely young man, so elegantly dressed. I felt a mixture of sadness and joy as I looked at him. Sadness that he had passed away so young. Joy, because he was so distinguished, a real gentleman.

How beautifully his family honored him with this life size statue. Even at this young age, he looks like the Master of the house! His tombstone was so old, I could not see his name. Walking away I felt he was there to watch over his section of the cemetery.

I thought about the movie called, “Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).” Do you know this movie? It’s an old one. The young boy in this movie, Little Lord Fauntleroy, dresses very similarly to this young man. If you haven’t seen it, I think you would enjoy it. Box office-wise, it was right up there with “Gone with the Wind.”

image1On the other side of the cemetery, I came across this group of geese. It seemed like a “male outing.” There were so many of them walking, eating and sqwauking at each other. I wished I knew what they were talking about.

As I turned around I saw a fox run by. Could not get a photo fast enough. I caught my breath for a moment, because I had recently read a Chinese story that talked about praying to the “Spirit Fox.” So, when I saw the fox roaming around, I felt it was a spirit running by me.

I had no idea there was so much “activity” at the cemetery. Next time I will bring my coffee, a book, and a lounge chair, so I can really observe what goes on there. VERY INTERESTING!

39 thoughts on “A true gentleman in the Chicago cemetery!”

  2. I used to live a stones throw from this little guy on Howard in Rogers Park. Spent many an hour here and on the lakefront when I went to Northwestern. Great memories and Clavary is an absolutely beautiful cemetery!

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    1. How funny that you have seen him. Yes, that’s it. Lots of Irish in that cemetery, so pretty across the street from Lake Michigan! I was amazed at how BIG the cemetery is. Northwestern – excellent University (good for you), beautiful campus! Now, you are on the other side of Lake Michigan “in” Michigan!

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      1. Its humungous. I started by rollerblading through aaaages ago and kept coming back. I lived East of Sheridan so we dead ended right into the lake, beautiful…😔 I miss it every day and that was one of my favorite places. The tie between Evanston and Chicago. Very happy to see this tonight.

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  7. First read about fox spirits in Shan Hai Jing. In Lunheng, it stated that the spirit fox has a shape-shifting ability. There are som many great and curious stories about fox spirits in Chinese literature. I can’t remember how many books about them I’ve read.

    Interesting post, btw.

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    1. Ah, Edmark… I hope you can remember some book suggestions to send me. It’s true, in the story I read the Fox Spirit became different people, then she would go roaming for six months at a time and come back. It was interesting. It seemed to me that she takes care of the person who prays to her (this fox was a “she”). This was the first time I had heard of the fox spirit. It seemed to be that for the Chinese, in a way, the fox spirit was like a guardian angel – there to help. 🙂

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      1. I’m sure that many of them don’t have English translations. Here are some that I can recommend that may have English versions.

        Liaozhai Zhiyi by Pu Songling- a collection of short stories. It has several stories about fox spirits.

        Fengshen Yanyi by Xu Zhonglin – Not all fox spirits are good, as shown in this novel.

        The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China by Xiaofei Kang (published in 2005) – Not a story per se, but a good description of the history of fox cults in China.

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      2. Thank you for taking the time to send me such a fantastic list. When I was young and asked my mother for a book to read, one of the FIRST books she gave me was “The Good Earth,” by Pearl S. Buck. So began my interest in learning about China/Asia.

        There are a lot of Asian women writing children’s picture books now in English. The stories are very nice. In fact, one women just wrote, “Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant.” It is just coming out. Her publisher encourages children to read stories from around the world! This is wonderful! I would like children to become more worldly.

        Take a look: http://www.songjumadaemicke.com

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  12. Cemeteries – especially old ones – can be endlessly fascinating. I too read “The Good Earth”when I was very young and found it fascinating – it opened a new world to me.

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  13. What a fabulous tombstone! I have not seen the movie but I have read the book, Little Lord Fauntleroy. I actually dressed as him one Halloween. There is so much to see and do in a graveyard. As a child, I preferred visiting the local cemetery over playing baseball with the other kids.

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