Tombstone Tuesday - Selma Rosenberg, a sad story

At Vänge cemetary on Gotland is this tombstone placed. The girl, Selma, has written the poem on her stone herself.

What is all the thinking, 

what is it?

What is all the searching 

in the human soul?

It is a child's game 

with sea shells in the sand

and what we find

is a foam by the beach

But deep and enigmatical

flows still

infront of us the sea

that is the truth!

Selma was born on the main land, not far from Stockholm. As a child she developed a heart condition. Her father died after battleing cancer for a year and a half when she was 13. Her mother was then left with 6 children and hardly any money to feed the family. This led to the mother's placement in a mental institution.

She started writing poetry at an early age and was very talented. So talented that she was offered a job, which she turned down. Instead she worked with clothes and embroidering. Her health was poor and her siblings tried to find a way to help her. She longed to visit her friend at Etelhem on Gotland, auntie Kökeritz and recieved an invitation.

June 4, 1901, Selma arrieved in Visby. None of her siblings could afford to go with her so she travelled on her own. She stayd the first night wiht some friends outside the town and the next day she was supposed to take the train down to Etelhem. She did not have the patiance to wait so she started walking. She came as far as Vänge on the evening of the fifth. She writes there in her diary about how tired she is and how ill she feels.

On the morning of the sixth her body is found on the estate of Backér. She had laid her scarf out on the ground to rest a bit but never woke up.


Source:
http://www.guteinfo.com/?id=2497

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