Marble Musings

 

There was a formal service for Vagelis’ parents in the cemetery chapel this morning.  The hand full of attendees who were there for the beginning of the service, had swelled to about 50 by the services’ conclusion almost two hours later.  There was an outdoor reception following the service with a serving table that bore bread, cake, orange juice, Metaxa Brandy, and cups of a wheat meal dish called Kolyva that is the traditional accompaniment for any ceremony commemorating departed souls.

The chapel will hold 20-25 people, so as people filed in I eased myself outside to where there was a cluster of men smoking and exchanging an occasional brief comment to one another.  During the course of the service I had plenty of time to muse idly on the marble crypts, the consistent thickness of their milled slabs, the unique marbling patterns in the raw stone, the differences in the shapes of their crosses, and how the marble flower vases had once been carefully turned on a lathe.  I also noticed disturbed places in the paved walkways between the graves that seem to have been repaired with broken sections of what had once been nicely milled recycled marble.

Thinking back, I remember noticing some buildings around the village with door thresholds, porches, and step facings of a similar marble that did not bear the usual wear marks you would expect to find in buildings of their age.

photos by Newell

I stopped by the bakery after the service, then headed home to enjoy the cool respite of the two foot thick stone walls and tiled floors of our newly renovated 200 year old house.  Settling down to the keyboard, I happened to notice the wide polished slabs of our newly installed marble window sills, and wondered……… well, part of me would like to know.