tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18500634.post1220211117098382477..comments2023-10-16T06:34:20.957-04:00Comments on La Belle Dame de Merci: The Haunted Hearth: Farmgirl Meditations on the Love of the LandAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12165335580241212248noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18500634.post-36269368990021138312013-08-20T23:34:15.815-04:002013-08-20T23:34:15.815-04:00The home I grew up in, located in Alexandria, Virg...The home I grew up in, located in Alexandria, Virginia, was haunted too. It was haunted by a past that I didn't know much about but could feel the residue of nonetheless, emanating from the various artifacts that my family had collected over the years.<br /><br />A photograph of Robert E. Lee, supposedly given to my father's ancestors by Lee himself, hung in the dining room. It's one of his most well-known likenesses, taken by Matthew Brady, showing him at Stratford Hall right after the Civil War ended. You can see all the weariness and horror of the recent conflict lining his haggard face and visibly oppressing his imposing frame. Also in the dining room hung a portrait of Rebecca Lloyd Tabb, a plantation belle married to slave owner John Tabb, her brown eyes still beguiling after more than 150 years, seeming to follow you around the room. I couldn’t fail to wonder at how such a kind face could belong to someone who lived off of the misery of people treated as only half human. And in the living room there was also a portrait of her mother, Anne Harriet Lee, which also seemed to have a life of its own. You couldn't possibly guess what was going on behind those eyes...but they appeared to gaze right into you, knowing your deepest secrets. <br /><br />Nevertheless, although the "Recent Unpleasantness" did cast its sad spell over our home, I figure it's better to be haunted by something, however troubling, than disturbed by the specter of nothing at all--in truth, you can find on the front of at least one Old Town home not far from ours that most profound of all plaques, "On this site in 1897 nothing happened."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18500634.post-82843370441924792782013-08-20T18:06:43.950-04:002013-08-20T18:06:43.950-04:00Thanks Barb! And welcome to La Belle, Bob! (Wow, ...Thanks Barb! And welcome to La Belle, Bob! (Wow, that's a lot of B's! ;))<br /><br />Good to know I'm not the only one sensitive to the hold of the past.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12165335580241212248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18500634.post-45150019207624710322013-08-19T15:28:54.846-04:002013-08-19T15:28:54.846-04:00This really resonates with me:
Wish my support sy...This really resonates with me:<br /><br />Wish my support system of close friends all lived fifteen to twenty minutes away instead of an hour or more. Babettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17430440373620519598noreply@blogger.com