The cemetery in Saragosa, Texas, is always hot, always dry. The ground between graves is hard-packed dirt, with nothing growing to soften the edges of the markers, of memories, of loss.

A tornado struck the town in 1987, killing 30 people – including children and families taking part in a Head Start graduation ceremony at the parish hall. A loss of 30 people is bad…but at the time, the town’s population was less than 200.

It doesn’t take long in the cemetery to spot markers with a common date: May 27, 1987.

Toward the center of the cemetery, this blonde madonna guards a grave, her calm and patient face a respite from everything else.

Saragosa, Texas
photographed 11.11.2011

Here are two other shots from the same cemetery visit.