A Gentle Case of Love in Vein

RICHMOND, Va. – A marble wall at a mausoleum here is giving comfort to a widower who believes he can see his late wife’s image … in the stone.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Howard Taylor discovered what appears to be the face of his wife Virginia in the white marble wall below her crypt at the Westhampton Memorial Park and Cemetery. And, those who’ve observed the memorial site don’t think he’s seeing things, either.
Taylor, 73, began visiting his wife twice a day at the mausoleum in December following her interment. During one of the visits, he noticed the face, although he only told a few people lest others think that he’d gone mad.
One of the darker veins in the white marble forms an upside-down arch, which Taylor saw at the mouth. Other veining patterns fill in the rest of the face, including his wife’s droopy right eye.
An official for the memorial park says that there’s been no tampering with the stone. The pattern in the stone, he told the Times-Dispatch, isn’t a generic shape – it really does look like Taylor’s wife.