The grey stone slab

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 9:25

May 5th, 07. p 105 'I cried out I could see her lying cold and mottled on a large grey stone slab'*
Now, this is 'supposedly' from a 'horrible vision' Kate had of the fate of .Madeleine. Call me strange if you will, but a 'large grey stone slab' is NOT the first thing I would imagine if I thought my child had been 'abducted by a paedophile ! Dumped in the woods, or a field perhaps.
I know everybody is different, but to me a 'stone slab' seems so far removed from the 'supposed reality' that it makes me think it is something K actually WITNESSED, not hallucinated.
It gave me chills the first time I read it, on The Sun, it made me feel truly sick and I thought for one odd moment K was publicly confessing to what happened to MBM!
Then again, MAYBE she WAS, in a round about way?

Any thoughts on this much appreciated. For me, this a stand out comment, much more so than the infamous p. 129 comment.

*may be slightly paraphrased, don't have the book personally.

by Mini Slueth 27.09.11 9:29

Hi rainbow fairy.

Could she be referring to a post portem slab???

Also, the church in Portugal where they were staying was having some floor work done while they were there......
Maybe thats the stone slab she means???? Just my own thoughts...nothing concrete in what i have said (pardon the pun)

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 10:18

Mini Slueth wrote:Hi rainbow fairy.

Could she be referring to a post mortem slab???

Also, the church in Portugal where they were staying was having some floor work done while they were there......
Maybe thats the stone slab she means???? Just my own thoughts...nothing concrete in what i have said (pardon the pun)

Hey Mini Sleuth, I liked the pun ;-)
I instantly thought of the church, and their friendship with the vicars. In light of fact the Vatican no longer support them and Fr Pacheco is allegedly 'a broken man' - I wonder did he discover M in the church?
He does say now that he was 'lied to by McC's'

I did briefly consider a mortuary slab, but -i'm reliably informed they are metal?

by **PeterMac** 27.09.11 10:52

"I was crying out that I could see Madeleine lying, cold and mottled, on a big grey stone slab."

Some mortuary tables are heavy white ceramic.

by Gillyspot 27.09.11 12:35

My thoughts were either somwhere up on the Rocha Negra or a tombestone in the church. Either way not something I would have shared with the world.

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 13:49

Gillyspot wrote:My thoughts were either somwhere up on the Rocha Negra or a tombestone in the church. Either way not something I would have shared with the world.

Is the Rocha Negra the 'rocks'???

No, I wouldn't have shared it either. It's the word 'slab' that got me - that sounds so definite? Which is what makes me think it WAS NOT a vision but a reality. My first reaction was one of those rectangular 'altar-type' tombstones?

by Guest 27.09.11 13:58

Here's a picture of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vitor107/2320111011/

Is the literal meaning "black rocks"?

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 14:46

PeterMac wrote:"I was crying out that I could see Madeleine lying, cold and mottled, on a big grey stone slab."

Some mortuary tables are heavy white ceramic.

Thanks, PeterMac, I do appreciate being corrected when I'm wrong (happens lots nowadays)!

Do you have any take on whether it was truly a 'vision' or not a la p.129?

by lj 27.09.11 15:33

Could it be just a figure of speech?

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 15:45

lj wrote:Could it be just a figure of speech?

Hi lj, certainly not a figure of speech I've ever heard of???

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 16:31

Jean wrote:Here's a picture of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vitor107/2320111011/

Is the literal meaning "black rocks"?

Jean, thanks for the link to the lovely photo, yes the literal meaning iS ,black rocks, you are correct.
Do you know if these are the same as those that K refers to as 'her rocks'?

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 16:32

Jean wrote:Here's a picture of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vitor107/2320111011/

Is the literal meaning "black rocks"?

Jean, thanks for the link to the lovely photo, yes the literal meaning iS ,black rocks, you are correct.
Do you know if these are the same as those that K refers to as 'her rocks'?

by lj 27.09.11 17:05

I have heard it in the New England area, although I have to admit it was most of the time followed by the "with pennies on your eyes" which is from Irish heritage, I believe.

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 17:36

lj wrote:I have heard it in the New England area, although I have to admit it was most of the time followed by the "with pennies on your eyes" which is from Irish heritage, I believe.

So what would the full expression be, if it included 'with pennies on your eyes', and what would it actually mean?
Sorry lj you'll have to forgive me, I'm not usually so obtuse! I think the sun has gone to my head - it's been V hot where I am today! :-)

by Guest 27.09.11 21:26

I've heard of the expression about pennies on the eyes in the context as in this link:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/58/messages/1694.html

I don't know of any connection with black rocks though.

by Guest 27.09.11 21:50

When I think of a grey stone slab, I think of an altar in church or the stone plate that covers a grave.
It is indeed a weird picture to have. Would have been more logical for Kate to think of bushes, or a ditch, or underneath a cover of a sewer, of the bottom of the sea ... Etc. Sorry, sad subject.

by rainbow-fairy 27.09.11 22:08

Juulcy wrote:When I think of a grey stone slab, I think of an altar in church or the stone plate that covers a grave.
It is indeed a weird picture to have. Would have been more logical for Kate to think of bushes, or a ditch, or underneath a cover of a sewer, of the bottom of the sea ... Etc. Sorry, sad subject.

EXACTLY Juulcy, my thoughts down to the last letter!
Like so many of the McC's statements, reactions and body language tells there is something really 'off', IMO.
Yes, it is a sad subject, but the whole sorry story of MBM is also.
It just stinks. Poor Maddie deserves justice, and I just hope againt hope she gets it, somehow.

by dentdelion 27.09.11 22:58

The term 'pennies on your eyes' would refer to the habit of placing pennies on a body after death.... I suppose to ensure eyes stayed closed? a penny was a large coin and about the right size to cover a closed eye.

by Gillyspot 27.09.11 23:13

rainbow-fairy wrote:
Jean wrote:Here's a picture of it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vitor107/2320111011/

Is the literal meaning "black rocks"?

Jean, thanks for the link to the lovely photo, yes the literal meaning iS ,black rocks, you are correct.
Do you know if these are the same as those that K refers to as 'her rocks'?

I think "her rocks" are just a rocky area of the beach where not many people go but I think they are towards the Rocha Negra.

Just a thought. How come the press did leave the McCanns alone to go running, playing on the beach with the kids, food shopping etc? The story was MASSIVE so even if the journos and photographers employed by the media held off the freelancers surely wouldn't. Would they? I would have expected 1000's of photos every day yet there are so very few really (when you think about it).

by Guest 27.09.11 23:16

It's very interesting, I never thought about that before. "I couldn't help myself. And all of this needed to come out. I dread to think what it might have done to me if it hadn't." Is Katie trying to justify something that she said at the time I wonder?

by Gillyspot 27.09.11 23:30

Molly wrote:

It's very interesting, I never thought about that before. "I couldn't help myself. And all of this needed to come out. I dread to think what it might have done to me if it hadn't." Is Katie trying to justify something that she said at the time I wonder?

Or Did Molly?

Kate appears to have such vivid unpleasant "dreams" of the horrific things that could have befallen Madeleine (and if she truly had been abducted - could well have) yet both Kate and Gerry still insists there is "no evidence" of any harm coming to her. Which is a true expression of her "honest" feelings regarding Madeleine's fate as they surely both cannot be?

"No evidence" being correct ONLY if you ignore the dogs findings, the deleted calls, the changing timelines, locked unlocked doors & windows etc. (Oh and you believe in invisible Jane Tanner.

by rainbow-fairy 28.09.11 8:24

Gillyspot wrote:
Molly wrote:

It's very interesting, I never thought about that before. "I couldn't help myself. And all of this needed to come out. I dread to think what it might have done to me if it hadn't." Is Katie trying to justify something that she said at the time I wonder?

Or Did Molly?

Kate appears to have such vivid unpleasant "dreams" of the horrific things that could have befallen Madeleine (and if she truly had been abducted - could well have) yet both Kate and Gerry still insists there is "no evidence" of any harm coming to her. Which is a true expression of her "honest" feelings regarding Madeleine's fate as they surely both cannot be?

"No evidence" being correct ONLY if you ignore the dogs findings, the deleted calls, the changing timelines, locked unlocked doors & windows etc. (Oh and you believe in invisible Jane Tanner.

Quite, Gillyspot! Frankly, it makes me sick when they repeat, ad nauseum ' there is no evidence to SUGGEST she has come to any harm' er, I would say if you think your daughter has been abducted by paedophiles, that is suggestion enough she has come to quite significant harm (unless, of course, you don't believe that paedophile activities harm children?!?) So perhaps 'there is no evidence to PROVE she has come to any harm' might be better? But - that isn't true either - there is Eddie and Keela, for starters, FSS first, correct report (before they were leant on to, er, 'contaminate' the samples etc). I doubt even Gerry could say that with a straight face, a definite sneer would have to creep in.

Maybe, re the slab, Kate just has a VERY VIVID ~~recall~~ imagination, but then again, maybe not. I certainly do, yet of all the scenario's that could 'go' with an 'abducted' child, a grey stone slab has never featured, not once... It's the church. But is it another 'red herring'?

by **tigger** 28.09.11 8:38

It's a very cinematic image. I wonder what films she was watching for pointers. The woman has no imagination, this is normal for sociopathic personalities.
Also, they were photographed against the sky, sitting on the rocks nearby? Romantic and yet sad at the same time, the 'star-crossed' couple.

by **PeterMac** 28.09.11 9:18

dentdelion wrote:The term 'pennies on your eyes' would refer to the habit of placing pennies on a body after death.... I suppose to ensure eyes stayed closed? ....

I think it was to pay Charon, the ferry man across the Styx.
If you couldn't pay you wandered the shore for a hundred years.

by rainbow-fairy 28.09.11 9:54

tigger wrote:It's a very cinematic image. I wonder what films she was watching for pointers. The woman has no imagination, this is normal for sociopathic personalities.
Also, they were photographed against the sky, sitting on the rocks nearby? Romantic and yet sad at the same time, the 'star-crossed' couple.

And all together now, ahhhhh.....

Never thought about it like that, tigger. Probably setting the 'dramatic scenes' for Madeleine - the Movie' is released coming to a cinema near you - ALL PROCEEDS WILL GO TO ~~paying our mortgage~~ THE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE FUND...nothing is more important than blah blah blah

by Guest 28.09.11 10:04

Indeed the phrase does refer to the ferryman Charon.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/58/messages/1694.html

There was a TV series in the late 1970s called "Who pays the ferryman?" Here's a link to the very distinctive theme tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGGtSkyasNA

I'd never heard about pennies actually being put on the eyes of a dead person until some years ago I heard a woman saying that she'd seen them on the eyes of her husband in a mortuary. I must admit that I thought she was hallucinating but now I'm not so sure.

by rainbow-fairy 28.09.11 10:29

Marian wrote:Indeed the phrase does refer to the ferryman Charon.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/58/messages/1694.html

There was a TV series in the late 1970s called "Who pays the ferryman?" Here's a link to the very distinctive theme tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGGtSkyasNA

I'd never heard about pennies actually being put on the eyes of a dead person until some years ago I heard a woman saying that she'd seen them on the eyes of her husband in a mortuary. I must admit that I thought she was hallucinating but now I'm not so sure.

Ah, thanks, Marian, I'm following it all now. I vaguely remember that show from when I was small....

I'm not sure which bit lj was referring to back on p1 when they asked 'is it a figure of speech?' Lj alkso brought up the bit about pennies on eyes, I'm still a bit lost about that - if anyone can help it would be grand!

by russiandoll 28.09.11 15:30

yes a very cinematic image and stone slabs feature heavily in harry potter strangely enough [ I thought they might ,I checked and yes they do ]. Harry was loved by Maddie according to her mother. dont think I can copy paste and post on here so be patient, I might have to type some quotes from the books. only a few as there is one heck of a lot.

can i put a link on here? last time i tried I got an error message .

by russiandoll 28.09.11 15:45

Here is just one of many references to stone slabs in the Potter books:

" Harry hates the way he sits on the cold grey slab attached to the cement wall. He knows he has nothing more than a thin wool blanket to ward off tghe chill at night"

I think Kate in her traumatised state is mixing her imagery, slabs of rock on the beach, Harry Potter, mortuary slabs and those associated with church interiors and tombstones.
It is all so very sad and strange.

by rainbow-fairy 28.09.11 18:21

russiandoll wrote:Here is just one of many references to stone slabs in the Potter books:

" Harry hates the way he sits on the cold grey slab attached to the cement wall. He knows he has nothing more than a thin wool blanket to ward off tghe chill at night"

I think Kate in her traumatised state is mixing her imagery, slabs of rock on the beach, Harry Potter, mortuary slabs and those associated with church interiors and tombstones.
It is all so very sad and strange.

Thanks russiandoll, that's interesting, especially given the 'claimed/alleged' JK Rowling link. It's certainly sad and strange that's for sure. Strange is a world where you imagine your child is in the land of myth and legend, yet it's also strange to believe on one hand your child has been taken by a paedophile and yet being treated like a princess!
It's something to think on, but in my gut I still think it's something K actually saw rather than imagined?