WASHINGTON — For some, gravestones can evoke
mourning, for others, a tribute to a loved one or, with a little imagination, a
gaunt hand emerging from freshly turned earth.
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But to the discerning eye, a scattering of
gravestones contain recipes, and an American librarian has begun to explore
them on TikTok, where her videos posted under the account
@ghostlyarchive have
drawn millions of views.
Peach crumble, blueberry pie, or fudge: for each
gourmet epitaph, 33-year-old Rosie Grant proceeds in the same way.
Faced with limited instructions — “there’s only so
much space on a gravestone”, she tells AFP — she first must guess the cooking
time and temperature. Viewers of her TikTok videos often post comments that
allow her to refine the recipes.
It was by chance that Grant stumbled upon her first
recipe from the graveyard, that of the spritz cookies of one Naomi Odessa
Miller-Dawson, who died in 2009 at the age of 87 and is buried in Green-Wood
Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
As an intern in the archives of a Washington
cemetery, Grant discovered the world of taphophiles, people who have a passion
for cemeteries, tombstones, and other aspects of burial.
She started a TikTok account dedicated to the
unexpected wonders of cemeteries and ended up unearthing Miller-Dawson’s recipe
on the internet.
“It wasn’t just that it said this woman liked
cookies... It had the actual ingredients for the cookies on her gravestone. And
I was, like, ‘that’s amazing!’” said the librarian, who has since moved to Los
Angeles. “What is this? What is this recipe? What does this taste like? I was
so curious.”
She has even been contacted by descendants of those
whose recipes she makes. All the recipes she found were on gravestones of
women, most of whom have died within the past 30 years.
“A lot of them
have grandkids and great grandkids that are on TikTok. So several of them have
commented on the videos, like, ‘Hey, this is my grandma, this is the recipe we
made and I recommend you do it this way’,” Grant said.
In between recipes, the librarian explores
graveyards in her videos, tells about the lives of accused witches buried
there, and shares anecdotes about buried celebrities.
For Grant, who lost both of her grandmothers during
the pandemic, the journey has brought some closure.
“This whole process has made me aware of the idea
that people and society are better off if you think about your own mortality…
and celebrate yourself,” she said.
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