Tombstone Tuesday - Hell + man = Hellman

I know - when you go to a cemetery you should bring a tool, right? Well I was so excited and shocked that my husband actually wanted to go with me (first time) to the cemetery to find his Gr Grandparents gravestones. It was a beautiful sunny day here in Portland, Oregon and the weather was nice. Not too hot.

After stopping at the cemetery office where the nice young man showed me the exact row and how many gravestones in to find the gravestones for Karl Ludvig Hellman and his wife Fanny we actually had a terrible time finding the gravestone. We quickly realized some are buried together so you need to count two stones. In other words graves. Then Mike, my husband said "there it is"! All you could see was the word "Hell". How weird. It was amazing he actually saw it. It was an unusual gravestone. Oh dear I did not have a tool. So craftily I thought of the ice scraper in my car. The hard shovel part of it might work to get away the dirt and grass covering the man. Mike worked diligently and excitedly to uncover the "man", thus the name Hellman appeared. It looked like maybe a family member got some cement and carved Hellman in it. It was really narrow and about 2 feet wide.

Mike was really excited. I thought - it does not even say his first name! That did not matter to Mike. He thought the stone was really primitive and cool. There was no separate headstone for Karl's wife Fanny. But there was room right next to him where hers should be. I went back to the office to verify the headstone was Karl's (it was) and if they would have any record of Fanny's headstone. They said no.

So here you go!

Karl Ludvig Hellman - Born January 23, 1875 in St. Karins, Finland, Died February 5, 1927 in Portland, Oregon.
Fanny Amanda (Saren) Hellman - Born September 18, 1875 in Finland, Died March 13, 1919 in Portland, Oregon. Both buried in the Rose City Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.

It was really neat that Mike went with me. Now he will probably go with me to see his other Gr Grandparents gravestones, in Vancouver, Washington. I also requested from the office any other records they had to be mailed to me. They said I should receive it within a week. They needed to open the vault. Cool!