Mary had a Little Lamb

A successful day, Mums flat is completely empty now and I sold the car to an A2 enthusiast who lives about 5 miles from Worthing. 

Whiling away time until I was due to deliver the car to him  I wandered Worthing Cemetery where there are some notable graves. This one is of Mary Hughes nee Thomas . Mary believed she was  been the inspiration for the famous nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb and you can see a lamb motif on her headstone with a reference to the poem. Indeed Mary did have lambs on her childhood farm in Wales and one did follow her to school. A friend of the family gave her the poem and throughout her life Mary thought the friend had written it for her.  
There is controversy over the authorship of the poem. A  Sarah Hale from Boston Massachusetts claimed to have written it in 1830 and a Mary Sawyer also from Massachusetts claims it was written for her in about 1816.  Undoubtedly, Mary Hughes' friend obtained the poem and gave it to our Mary and without the power of the internet,  our Mary thought it was written about her and perpetuated the story here in Worthing. 
Oh well, she has a very nice grave as a result and is remembered as part of the controversy.