Home of the Innocents sculpture dedication

There was a preview party for the sculptures the day after they were installed. Hosted by Sharon Receveur, we had a lot of great food and we got to meet a lot of great people.

The dedication cememony began with Sharon Receveur giving words of welcome, followed by Home of the Innocents CEO Gordon Brown and then Linda Speed spoke. Sharon Receveur and Linda Speed were the catalyst for the project, and they gathered a committee for which this project was obviously a labor of love. Many, many hours were spent finding all the names of the children. They were a great group of people to work with.

Ciaran Brown played Sister Emily Cooper in a production called "Remember me"

Each of the child actors stepped forward with one of the names of the children. Some had a short description of the childs short life which ended with the question "Will you remember me?" It was a quite moving performance.

Becky Riddle unveils a historical marker about Sister Emily Cooper and her work at Home of the Innocents.

Doves were released as "Ascension" was unveiled.

"Ascension" unveiled. The prayer and blessing of the sculptures was led by Rabbi Stanley Miles of Temple Shalom and Bishop Reed. The Ballard High School Madrigal Singers gave a performance before the unveiling of "Ascension". Linda Speed is on the right in the red jacket.

Metamorphosis in her site. The butterflies on the blanket symbolize the children. THe sculpture represents how Sister Emily Cooper, through her care, symbolized by the blanket,helped the children achieve spirituality

Detail of "Metamorphosis." Here you can see how the butterflies transform from flat patterns to fully dimensional butterflies, symbolizing the children's spiritual transformation.

"Metamorphosis" from the left side.

"Ascension" from the front. This piece represents Sister Emilys work with children, guiding them to spiritual growth.

Detail of "Ascension"

The back of Ascension.

Cave Hill Cemetery donated this marble bench near Metamorphosis as well as a bench next to Ascension. They beautifully set off both sculptures.

Home of the Innocents sculpture installation

We had picked up the bronze plaques for the sculptures from Eagle Sign and Design, and were now ready to receive the granite bases, to which the sculptures will be mounted.

The granite bases arrive and Don is getting ready to receive the stones. The granite was cut and lettered at Century Granite, which is located in Georgia.

The granite is loaded onto our 2 ton truck.

Don drills holes into the granite base so that the sculpture can be mounted to it. They will not be epoxied to the stone at this point, this is basically a dry run to make sure everything fits properly. The plaques also will not be epoxied. All will go separately to the Cemetery and will be reassembled and epoxied there.

There are nuts welded into the bottom of the sculpture, into which Don will place stainless steel threaded rod. These will
fit down into the holes that Don drilled earlier. Careful measurements of the nuts were made to make sure that the holes were drilled accurately.

The granite bases are loaded using a crane. Paul Roerig, the new owner of Brummett Monuments, helps Don position the granite, while Johnny runs the controls of the crane.

Steve (left), Don and Johnny(right) load the bronze sculptures into the back of a pickup truck for delivery to Cave Hill Cemetery. The sculptures and bronze plaques will be permanently affixed on site.

The crane is set up to install the granite base.

Don (on the left), Johnny (on the right) and Paul carefully adjust the granite base.

Ascension is lifted into place. Someone said, "it's the Flying Nun!" Actually she's a flying Deaconess! I'm not going to post finished photos of the pieces until after they are dedicated Sunday.

The second "Flying Deaconess" is held in check by Paul. The dedication ceremony is this Sunday at 2:00. Everyone is welcome...