Saturday, January 12, 2013

Exeter, Rhode Island

 This is the baptist church adjacent to the graveyard where poor Mercy is buried.  The whole town was quiet, and seemingly shrouded in an eerie mist.  All of the trees and stones were coated in lichen, indicating that the air, at least, is clean.  Mercy Brown's story is one of the best documented cases of exhumation to deal with the problem of the undead.  It's interesting how close to the 20th century this occurred, and how the advent of embalming finally reaching these rural farm towns (which was sure to prevent the undead from rising to drink the blood of the living) helped alleviate some of their fears.  By 1882, ten years before Mercy died, it had been discovered that TB (the artist formally known as consumption) was in fact caused by bacteria, but folk knowledge and local legends still held a lot of clout, allowing for the disturbance of Mercy's grave.  I wonder what she had to say to her father when he showed up thirty years after her exhumation.  The cemetery she's buried in is still accepting new tenants, and we saw a stone for a 19 year old man who had passed in 2005. 
The cemetery is eerie, but peaceful, and it doesn't seem that Mercy is angry.  I imagine she gave this young man the grand tour when he was interred, telling him to thank his lucky stars that vampires in the 21st century merely sparkle.

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