POOR SOULS

While wandering through Evergreen cemetery this morning, in search of interesting patterns and infrared images to photograph, I happened on this monument, surrounded by about 20 markers:

"HOME FOR AGED WOMEN"

It looks like something out of a Dickens novel. Old people, indigent, being taken care of by the town or city, just waiting to die. Which struck me as odd, since some of the markers were for ladies who died in the 1990's. Was there a "home for aged women" in Portland then?

Was there no family? No family plot where they could be buried? Were these childless old ladies with no relatives? The last of their line? Or did they prefer that their final resting place be with the other ladies that they had spent their last years with? True friends, perhaps. We'll never know - at least not without a bit of research.

I am thinking of making an effort every once in a while to visit this place, since I doubt that very many people do. If there were concerned relatives, you'd think they'd replace that dead evergeen next to the stone.....