Resting under the Slavonic Cross

Ту спочиває наш син • Tu spočivaje naš sin • Here rests our son
Стефан • Stefan

The boy lived into his sixth year *1919, 1924†. He was a Rusyn (several spellings), and a Greek Catholic. His family would have come from, what would have been before the Great War, the far eastern Austrian empire. The nation now is in several lands: Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, and Ukraine. The Ukrainians consider the language to be a dialect of Ukrainian. They are distinct enough to be considered a separate Slavonic nation. Now, the Poles consider some of them Lemko, and Polish. In Cleveland there is a Lemko Hall that appeared in the film Deerhunter. I mention this, because the boy's family name (Aндрiйовскйи) is transliterated (Andrijowskyj) in a Polish fashion, from the Cyrillic script. In the Latin script, he has a middle initial 'A', that is not in the Cyrillic. It may be for the patronymic (the child's form of the father's Christian name).

On the stone is folk incisions of flowers, and the Slavonic cross. Top bar is the title board, the bottom the foot board. It is tilted, towards the Good Thief, and the Bad Thief; tilted towards Heaven, and Hell.