Here’s more on my March visit to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, “Where Concord’s Legends Lie.”
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
According to Alcott’s obituary in the New York Times, March 7, 1888:
For a long time Miss Olcott [sic] had been ill, suffering from nervous prostration. Last Autumn she appeared to be improving and went to the Highlands to reside with Dr. Rhoda A. Lawrence. She drove from there into town to visit her father on Thursday last, and caught a cold, which on Saturday settled on the base of the brain and developed spinal meningitis.
The funeral was private.
An inspection of the grave shows 34 (?) pens and pencils, a few coins, some scattered stones, and a bouquet of dead flowers tied up with a red ribbon. While many of the offerings left at Thoreau’s grave represent the natural world, the most appealing item left for Alcott is a small potted evergreen, adorned with what look like plastic holly berries. It gives the grave site a Christmas-y feeling, not surprising for the author best know for Little Women.
The Wrong Font 
I once stopped by on my way to work and there were single roses on her grave, Henry Thoreau’s, Ellery Channing’s, Hawthorne’s, and Emerson’s. I could not work out what was common on the day. (Sadly, I’ve forgotten the date.)
LikeLike