The Stations of the Cross lead us to Lady Park. There, refurbished statues, on new pedestals that depict the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries of the Rosary, line a path.

At the end of the path, a 48-foot-tall, 6.5-ton Black Madonna stands in the center of the park.

A bald woman wearing a visor cap and a younger woman pray a Hail Mary, their rosaries in hand. They are so like the other rosaries that cling to the bushes abutting the 30-foot, Vermont stone pedestal, upon which the dark-bronze Madonna stands.

sitting silent the sound of running water from a fountain

Photo by Laura Allen

first published in Image Curve, September 26, 2019