Some columns you encounter in the cemetery may be broken due to damage or vandalism, but many columns are intentionally carved in the broken form.
Column, Broken
From Kimberly Powell, About.com
A broken column indicates a life cut short, a memorial to the death of someone who died young or in the prime of life, before reaching old age.
Tombstone of Raffaele Gariboldi, 1886-1918 - Hope Cemetery, Barre, Vermont
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