A Hot Day Amongst Cold Marble

The next week there was another real estate showing at our perennially For Sale house in Wayland. So again, Roy and I went to the morning service at The Mother Church. Then, How to pass the time this week, while we cannot return to our house?

I asked to go to Mt. Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge. I had been there only once before, in the late '70's when I lived in Boston with my first family. At that time, former husband Tom and I took our two small daughters and the neighbor's little girl, Stephanie, on an outing to Mt. Auburn. Rachel was small enough to still be using a stroller, one of those small, fold-up, "umbrella" models. Leah and Stephanie were playmates. We parked, then pushed our way into the labyrinth. How fascinating, the age and variety of stones and monuments! Also, the place is an arboretum, displaying new beauties at every turn. With its rolling terrain, Mt. Auburn Cemetery is a great place to take the family for a stroll.

Roy and I, on this hot, humid Sunday, drove the driveways of the cemetery at random, looking at everything, but looking for one thing:  The Mary Baker Eddy monument.  I couldn't remember where it was, but I knew we had walked down a slope to the water's edge. This day, Roy and I saw engraved reminders of everyone else who'd ever made Who's Who in metropolitan Boston (so it seemed), but no reminder of Mary Baker Eddy. Where was that elusive monument?

We stopped to take pictures, though neither of us had brought our real cameras -- just cell phones -- so I have only a few shots to show you.

We were just about to give up our search,
when we came upon this marker -- the only sign
pointing to a person's tomb I noticed that day.
And there, just glimpsed across the water . . .

Driving around to the far side of the pond and parking, we got the up-close view.

Roy, giving scale to the monument. On the earlier visit,
little Stephanie had spontaneously dropped to her knees
on these steps, crossed herself, and said a prayer. It was then we realized
what church her family attended. Not The Mother Church.

On each side is a tablet inscribed with pivotal quotes from Mary Baker Eddy's immortal words. I had never really appreciated this tomb before, but this time I realized that if something drastic ever happened to the in-town church, there was exactly enough text at this obscure tomb to secure her place in history and keep her knowledge of God and the universe alive.

A view of the tomb from the road. Her name and
authorship are inscribed around the frieze.

Another Massachusetts must-see gets checked off my list.

This time, we continued on to IHOP for lunch, then home to the now-empty house. Had there been there any action at the open house? Tune in next week . . .