Julia Buccola Petta
Looking for information on possible descendants of the so-called "Italian Bride" of Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois.The young lady was already 29 years old, not a new bride, when she died in childbirth along with the infant.Her distraught mother allegedly had dreams of Julia begging to be disinterred due to premature burial (which seems unlikely, as she was laid out in her wedding dress and must have been embalmed if she was waked for more than a day or two.)
After 6 years, the mother managed to have the young woman exhumed, and Julia was found to be in a state almost of perfect preservation, while the casket and her garments showed deterioration.A photo was allegedly taken at this time (though some experts believe it was actually done before her first burial), and laquered onto the new monument, complete with the original wedding picture, and a life-sized statue based on the wedding picture.Interestingly, the inscription bears no mention of Julia's husband or the infant who died with its mother.
FILOMENA BUCCOLA
REMEMBRANCE OF MY BELOVED DAUGHTER
JULIA AGED 29 YEARS
And a durable legend afterward grew around the monument, of a "White Lady" who roamed the grounds smelling of her wedding roses.
I won't go into the adipocere process that probably helped to preserve the body, but there is, in my mind, a mystery here--- where is the baby?Varying accounts mention that, as was customary, it was buried with the mother, yet there's NO mention of the child at the exhumation.I mean, if a supernatural force is going to preserve an adult, why not also a blameless (and apparently nameless) infant?
Which means the child was buried elsewhere, perhaps with the father's family.Or, is it that the child did NOT actually die at birth, and perhaps grew up and eventually had a family?
Also, due to the deep grudge Filomena is said to have borne towards her son-in-law, his name does not appear on the lovely monument.Plus, the (supposedly) dead baby was not the Petta's first child--- what became of him or her?Did the father marry again (as seems likely)?
I'd appreciate any information....
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Re: Julia Buccola Petta
Mariana Edwards 4/25/08