I found Amy Tanner's grave at 3:40 this afternoon- and what an adventure. Whoever said Rhode Island was a small state and Cranston just a little suburb of Providence will get a piece of my mind. I also am planning a slow torture for the demented people who thought up MapQuest! It sure looked easy on paper- a mere 30 minutes' drive from work. When I took that easy turn to the parkway, I smacked into a chainlink fence and a smiling granny who said "That there road has been closed off for YEARS"- so an hour later, a kindly gas station attendant leaned wearily over the counter and queried, "MapQuest, right? Three lights and a left." Apparently we MapQuest wanderers have a certain harried look. I never knew there were so many Walmarts and so many churches. Broad Street sounded safe, like Main or Maple or High- and it was after finally stumbling across it by accident, cars beeping angrily behind all the way as I hung out a window squinting. Oakland is in what used to be a pretty nice area but is now suffering gentle urban decay- the cemetery is frankly urban rot. I nearly ran off the narrow paths when I saw a rainbow avalanche of plastic flowers-colors nature never intended, festooned with balloons, teddy bears, blow-up Easter bunnies and all manner of eye-popping paraphanalia. The office was boarded up and the door was hanging on its hinge , weeds growing profusely in reckless abandon. Returning to Rainbow Field, I spied a man on a bucket loader digging a grave amidst the multi-colored foliage underfoot. His name was Clive I think and I think he was none too happy to have me sneak up on him. His plan was to have me come back next week so he could look up Amy Tanner in that ramshackle hut! I stepped between him and the open grave and declared I was here from another country and today had to be it. After scratching and staring up at the trees for a space, his sidekick (Ernie) ambled over. I was thunderstruck when he said-"Oh Amy-the Titanic lady- yep...right over there." It seems someone who knew her in Life walks his dog in the cemetery and has chatted with old Ernie. He frisked on over to the grave while I followed in the car- and with the wave of a grimey hand , he disappeared like a gnome into the dirt. The stone is beautiful, a frond of fern on top, and thankfully it is not in amongst the plastic horrors. Eugene, her husband, and a man named William Tanner is also buried there. I cut away the overgrowth and cleared away 2 years worth of dead leaves. Will have the photos to post in a day or so-forgot the digital. I don't know what you all do when you find a grave, but I tend to talk to whoever it is I am visiting. I wonder what Amy would have thought of all the Titanic interest today? My hat is off to those great folks who document cemeteries and do all the geneaology- what a labor.
