Gross Mutter

the dessicated maple leaf was there

Looking back at photos i took, i decided to put these on the net. Some others were visually interesting as landscapes, but without a particular story. I will put some on. They are worth looking at, but little text.

Monroe Cemetery Cleveland i find interesting, more so than most. There are many Germans buried there. In the XIXth century they did not feel prohibited in writing in their native tongue.

Not all were flush in funds, but wanted memorials for their dead. And to-day, in America, the poor are hated in such away that proper company does not allow them, and their concerns, to be spoken of; if one does, one is barraged with taunts of 'socialist' or worse. It is not that 'socialist' is a bad term (or concept) at all, but those throw it impugn repugnant and calamitous implications, connotations, and pure venom.

The one supra was made standard. 'Mutter' was ready in the store, 'Gross' was added. The name was not cut. Maybe the money was not there, and modest was acceptable, and still had dignity. Germans like long words, compound words; but English has 'grandmother' as one, Deutsch hat hier 'Gross Mutter' als zwei. But now, Germans spell it 'Großmutter'. I do not remember seeing double s with 'ß' there.
Gross Mutter was in her 60s. Gertrude was a child. It looks money did not allow an immediate stone for Grandmother, and in the meantime the girl died, and money for two stones was not there. Altmann is a Germanic name, Wachowiak a Polish name, but it is not unusual for a nation have others acculturate into. Sometimes from generations past, so only the spelling suggests a different nation.