Chasing Childhood Ghosts

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:53:32 -0500

I didn't mean to disappear the last two days. Just no time to update. The kids had another "ice" day on Thursday. I spent all day cleaning and packing the kids up to go away for the weekend. Yes, folks, we are in the middle of a kid-free weekend!

Steve took yesterday off. My husband loves me so much. Right after we woke up yesterday, we were laying in bed and I asked, "So what are we going to do today?"

"Let's go see Black Aggie", he replied.

Sigh. Can it get anymore romantic than that?

Just about anyone that grew up around the Baltimore area has heard stories of the graveyard sculpture, Black Aggie. Even though she had been moved from the cemetery and given to the Smithsonian years before I was born, I was well versed in all the legends.

On Friday nights, driving back from dropping my Aunt Catherine (she was kinda like our live in nanny during the week) off at my Aunt Lizzy's house in Baltimore, my dad would make a detour by this creeepy cemetery. It wasn't the one Aggie had originally resided in, but it was an old creepy cemetery none the less. My dad would tell me stories while we passed of people dying in her sinister presence. Teenagers crushed to death in her arms while taking the dare to sit on her lap at midnight. My friends and I also played the game where if you said her name 10 times in front of a mirror in the dark,she would appear behind you. Needless to say, I never made it to 10.

Yesterday, I finally faced my worst childhood fear.

Aggie and Janie

Black Aggie

Aggie now resides in Washington D.C., behind the Dolley Madison Building in a small quiet courtyard. She wasn't quite as scary as I had imagined her. Although, I didn't dare sit on her lap.

Aggie happens to be a cheap imitation of a different cemetery sculpture in Rock Creek Cemetery. She is named "Grief" or known as "The Adams Memorial". Steve is such a wonderful husband that he took me to see her so I could compare the two.

We drove around the cemetery for quite sometime. We even stopped to examine some statues closely, but no luck finding the statue. We did see some interesting ones and had fun sliding on the layer of ice that covered the ground.

Steve sliding on the ice

Graveyard Sculpture

Just plain creepy

Finally, we decided to go to the cemetery office. I was worried that they were going to tell us we couldn't be in the cemetery if we weren't visiting family members. We walked up to the door, and posted right next to it were the directions to the memorial. Obviously, we weren't the first people to come looking for Aggie's prettier older sister.

We made the treacherous walk up a hill to her hiding place behind some trees. No wonder we couldn't find her.

Grief's hiding place

Grief, The Adams Memorial

Grief was stunning. An amazing piece of art. I took some pictures then turned the camera over to Steve. He started snapping from all angles. He has such an artistic eye for these things. Then he kneeled down in front of her to take a picture. As he looked up at her through the viewfinder, he saw something he didn't expect to see. "She looked at me. She just opened her eyes and looked at me."

Look into my eyes

Let me just say, Steve isn't one for ghosts or ghost stories like I am. If it had happened to me (and believe me, I'm jealous I didn't see this) he wouldn't have believe me. He stands by his story. Needless to say, I wasn't one bit tempted to sit on her lap!

Grief

Aggie, Grief's ugly little sister

Yes, Aggie didn't compare to Grief. Grief is a beautiful and moving piece of art. Such a shame she is hidden away where the world can't fully appreciate her. As for Aggie, she isn't so scary anymore.

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javajanie

Chasing Childhood Ghosts