What a wonderful and sad shot Marilyn. I love walking through old cemeteries and reading the head stones. It certainly makes one wonder as to who put the flowers there, was it a relative or just someone that saw it and felt for the baby.. Nice capture well done!!

A beautiful shot. I've never truly understood why the vast majority of people find graveyards so unnderving. To me they are peaceful, tranquil, and beautiful places of remberance and memories...even if no one is left alive who remembers who is laid to rest in a particular plot of soil - particularly older cemetaries where all you might find is a shallow depression in the ground to mark where a soul is resting. It's wonderful that someone thought enough of this poor child to place flowers on her grave. Now you have stired the muse behind me to some memories of Gold Rush era graveyards here in California. Thank you for sharing this.

When in Japan, we walked through several very old cemeteries. To think of all the history that has gone by since these people passed away. So sad for such a young baby though. I too, wonder who placed those beautiful flowers as a rememberance. Aloha

I help in a Family History Centre, assisting people trace their ancestors. I see these sorts of statistics all the time, especially for that era. What is most surprising about his is her we are 112 years later, and someone (probably a distant relative) is moved enough to show they still care. This is a lovely shot of past sorrow, and modern care.

Interesting timing on this Marilyn. Just yesterday I saw a car at the supermarket with a memorial decal in the rear window for a little girl that only lived four months. The ancient Greeks believed that tragedy was not bourn by the ones who died but by those who were left behind to somehow carry on. A wonderful and sad image.

Great shot. As you know, I love exploring old graveyards. I hope you too have caught the bug! In a strange way, photographing the graves of the long departed somehow gives them a voice. I like to imagine how amazed they would be about having their image being instantly sent all around the world. I feel I am helping them say 'Hey look.....over here people of 2010........down here....here I am.....I existed....I was loved and in turn loved....I was part of a family....I had a name...........my life was important.......please don't forget me'.

And the flowers are REAL! wonderful!

the photo tells a moving story

Oh wow - how amazing! It is a sad shot but also joyful as someone has placed the fresh flowers on the little grave! Great find my friend!

A lovely shot, Marilyn; there were so many children who died young in the "old days". Sad and beautiful, and I didn't realize that those were real flowers!

There is someone I once knew who took his life many years ago. He's buried on the other side of the continent but I send fresh flowers from time to time. I often wondered if anyone passed by his grave and thought about where those flowers came from. I've never said anything to anyone about doing this... its a way to make the giver feel better for whatever reason. Lovely shot.

The little lamb on top of the stone says it all for me.

Ultra poignant, Marilyn!

There is a story to this, perhaps simple, perhaps complex. We likely will never know but still it gives us pause...

I didn't see those flowers at all. Funny, how photographers get together at the same place and see totally different things!

What a fascinating shot. I have no cemetary/graveyard shots, but they're immensely interesting places. There's a pronounced sense of history, real history and not that stuff you read in books that are sometimes poorly written. I think that's what draws me, and why I liked living in Prague and Český Krumlov so much; they have that distinct "graveyard" feel. Nothing morbid or sad, but quite lively with a real sense of time passing, of history writing itself in small, subtle ways. I think it's a matter of things being etched in stone, and then weathering, and those unexpected contrasts that can only be described as "weird" in the truest sense of that word--weird as in "not mundane." This picture makes all of that come back for me...it's the aged stone, the idea that a life (albeit a short one) was lived. In a sense that little baby girl has a story to tell, and whoever sent those flowers (as well as the photographer who took this particular picture) are now lively parts of that picture. In a sense, this says to me that life goes on, but sometimes it takes other people to live it. This is a great, touching, and evocative shot. I love the spiritual vibe of it.

Wonderful image and thoughts / actions from someone who took time to care!