The Lily of the Valley

On one of my recent cemetery adventures I spotted a symbol I haven’t seen on too many markers.¹ It was the lily of the valley. I’ve always like the slightly old-fashioned scent of the flower, but I wondered what meaning it held. Did someone mistake the lily of the valley as the French fleur-de-lis? The carving does look a bit like a fleur-de-lis. The flower is a symbol of “rebirth and humility.”²

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Grave stone with lily of the valley.³

1. Photograph of the grave marker of Alice O. Wildman (1850-1912), taken at Central Cemetery, Brookfield, Connecticut on 20 July 2021; digital image, in collection of Vanessa Wood.
2. Rebekah P., “Lily of the Valley Flower Meaning and Symbolism,” blog post, 17 March 2021, Florgeous (https://florgeous.com/lily-of-the-valley-flower-meaning : viewed 21 July 2021), para. 7.
3. Photograph by Vanessa Wood, “Wildman Grave Stone,” Central Cemetery, Brookfield, Conn. : photographed 21 July 2021).