A new neighbor moved in recently.
A bunny! A tiny little bunny!
I hope bunny hangs around.
In 2019, a few days before my vision went permanently wonky, I took a tour of the National Cathedral. Not the usual tour. I took the “Behind the Scenes” tour, which was a lot of fun, very informative and interesting, and, at points, absosmurfly terrifying. (We crossed a narrow walkway just before the Rose Window, and then we went out on the roof. Worth the terror.)
On the tour, the guide (Andy) talked about Rowan LeCompte, a boy from Baltimore who read about the Cathedral while it was still under early stages of construction and decided he wanted to design the stained glass windows, a dream that he ultimately fulfilled.
For reasons too long and too convoluted to explain, I discovered a few months ago that LeCompte is not only buried in Baltimore, but he’s buried one section over from my great-grandparents in Loudon Park Cemetery. And I decided that, when next I went to visit the cemetery, I would look for LeCompte.
I planned on going next week, for Memorial Day, and still do, but I was in Baltimore yesterday for other reasons and decided I could just “bop” over to the cemetery. (The last time I was there was last Memorial Day, when I also visited the small Catholic cemetery where Baltimore baseball fixture Jack Dunn is buried.) I did somewhat regret the impromptu decision; traffic was absolute shite on the Beltway due to construction and the Orioles game.
My great-great-grandmother’s site looked better than it has in a long time. It’s been recently mowed (there was a lawn crew working on that side of the cemetery yesterday), the grass looks good and healthy, no signs of recent flooding.
On the newer side of the cemetery, I parked near my great-grandparents, made sure everything was okay there, and then went and explored the next section over, looking for LeCompte.
I had no luck. Since this was a spur of the moment trip, I did no prep—I knew that he was there, and I’d figure the rest out as I went—and didn’t know what I was looking for. Finally, after I’d covered the whole section, I went under a nearby tree, pulled up Find a Grave, and looked to see if there were any pictures of the site. There were, and I saw instantly why I hadn’t found LeCompte; I was looking for something larger, not just a small, ground level stone. Fortunately, the photos on the site also showed the general area, including a tree and very prominent cross. The tree has since been removed, but the cross stone is still there. I’d walked past it at least twice.
And then I found Rowan LeCompte, designer of the stained glass at the National Cathedral.
While one cannot see my great-grandparents’ site from LeCompte’s—there’s a headstone blocking my great-grandparents’ in the line of sight—the Joh statue on the opposite side of the “street” from my great-grandparents is easy to make out. So, the general area is visible.
Like I said, I’ll be back next week to do my usual Memorial Day stuff, like visiting my grandparents and leaving flags.