Mother, Stranger, Snow

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Provincetown for some work at the Fine Arts Work Center, and on my way home I stopped at the Snow Cemetery in Truro, Massachusetts.

The last big winter storm had brought down lots of limbs in the cemetery, and a crew was there cutting them up and clearing away the mess. Some headstones had been toppled by fallen branches, but even with the whine of the chainsaws, the place is peaceful.

I have some ancestors buried in this cemetery, though very distant ones. The Hopkins family and the Snow family intermarried, and I have relations from both of these families. I was happy to find a Hopkins family plot.

My seventh great-grandmother was a woman named Thankful Snow, which is just about the prettiest name I can imagine anyone having.

Here’s a little Victorian headstone marking the grave of an infant, now covered in bright turmeric-colored lichen—or is it moss? Anyone want to weigh in?

If you happened to die in the winter when the ground was too frozen to dig a grave, you might find yourself in this convenient crypt waiting for the spring.

If you’d like to read more about the Snow Cemetery and who is buried there, here’s an article that names some of the artists who are buried there, as well as telling a bit more about the history of the place.