'Aimée'

Owned by: Étienne Marcel Duval

Recovered From: Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, 1892

They said little boys were not meant to have dolls. For this, Étienne Marcel Duval endured endless jeers, his gentle spirit bruised by the cruel laughter of other children. Yet he never raised his hand in anger. Instead, he wandered to where the living grew quiet...the moss-draped stones of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. Among the tombs, with Aimée held close, he felt safe, as though the silent marble saints shielded him from the world’s scorn.

One early spring evening, after another day of merciless taunts, Étienne fled to the cemetery once more. But this time, he did not return. No trace of him was ever found - no body, no footprints, nothing but whispers. Days later, when the groundskeeper unlocked the wrought-iron gate, there upon a tomb was Aimée. Yet she was changed. The doll now wore Étienne’s velvet and lace suit, the very garments he had been seen in when last alive. Her smile seemed sadder somehow, her dark eyes clouded with sorrow, as if she had taken the boy’s gentle spirit within her.