On August 2, we stopped in the little village of Interlaken, New York, to locate the graves of my Great Aunt Esther and her immediate family. Interlaken is between Lake Cayuga and Lake Seneca in the Finger Lakes region.
The family graves are located in the Lake View Cemetery. I haven’t been there since my college days, so I wasn’t sure where to look. Luckily, after wandering around for a while, we found a map on the back side of the caretaker’s cottage.
There is one large Gardner stone, with five small marker stones. The family constellation consists of the following people:
- My great grandfather, William Elliott Gardner (1861-1957)
- My Great Aunt Esther (1896-1989), his oldest daughter, by his first wife (who died in childbirth when Aunt Esther was born)
- My great grandfather’s second wife, Emily Covert (1869-1952)
- Their daughter, Pauline Palmer (1900-1952)
- Their son, Alan Gardner (1902-1963)
The only one of these people I never met was my Great Aunt Pauline, a Captain in the Women’s Army Corps, who died in a car crash on her 52nd birthday. I barely remember my step-grandmother, Emily. I was only brought to her bedside as she lay dying when I was about 8 years old. But I knew my Great Grandfather, who died at age 96, and my Great Uncle Alan, who lived on Central Park in New York City.
My Aunt Esther was single her whole life and took care of my father as a child and her father in his old age. She is remembered with deep affection by our entire extended family.
This visit to her resting place was a worthwhile part of the pilgrimage I feel I am taking in her memory, so this was a great place to start our trip.
[Photographs © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]