Book Description

"Lola Haskins takes readers on a tour like no other. Travelling to Florida's most interesting cemeteries, she visits Napoleon's nephew, tells the gruesome story of a man who dug up his love and lived with her for seven years, and even shares a murder mystery. Whether the final resting places of Civil War soldiers killed in battle or of the four-hundred-year-old remains of nuns peacefully interred by their shell-studded chapel, each plot has a unique story to tell. The 1918 flu epidemic, for example, comes alive in five graves behind a small white church overlooking the Santa Fe River: four children and their mother, dead within a week of each other. Each chapter features a substantial description of (and driving directions to) a particular location, an overview of the local community, and an extended profile of one of that cemetery's most interesting "residents." Haskins also includes first-person reflections on mortality, on what it means to die and to grieve for the dead, and fact-filled discussions of changing burial practices and religious beliefs. She even visits a pet cemetery and a racehorse cemetery, sharing stories of a ghost dog and a horse that got a speeding ticket"--