Wonderful places and people rarely get enough press and I found both of these in one location. A scheduled presentation that was cancelled at the last minute led me to the discovery of St Agnes Cemetery in Menands, NY, a town just outside of the state capital, Albany. The long, historic, and sometimes notorious history of Albany and New York politics is a subject for another book -or ten- but this is a story that is uplifting.

The cemetery has been actively in use since just after the Civil War and is still in use today as a passing funeral procession verified while I was there. A video presentation re-enacted the lives of some of the more famous denizens of the park-like setting. Reading the book later, I discovered even more fantastic stories of the famous (politicians, wealthy families, and people in the arts) and not so famous (child accident victims, orphans, still-born infants and soldiers). There was also the reinterment of remains found in a nearby grave site during a construction project, thirteen that were determined to be of African ancestry during the late 1700s to early 1800s. These individuals were not just relocated, they were respectfully laid to rest again with a wonderful ceremony as documented in the book.
If this was not enough to distinguish St. Agnes from other resting places, there is determined restoration of the monuments and replacement of stones, not just preservation. I have seen too many forgotten cemeteries, sometimes with notable American heroes in them, left to neglect, vandalism and obscurity.

The driving force behind this effort, including the book, the video and the restoration, is Kelly Grimaldi, a dynamic force whose enthusiasm for this life-long project is evident while speaking with her. Starting as a volunteer but bringing excellent educational credentials as well as an obvious love of her work, she made the blueprint, worked on a tight budget and has performed miracles in and for the cemetery.

I have been to other great cemeteries, including Green Wood, Arlington, and Andersonville and I have been to small cemeteries. If you really want to read great stories, this is where you will find them, as we recall from reading Spoon River Anthology so long ago. If we can't clone the author, maybe she can write another book, a roadmap for historians and preservationists around the world. ( )