Hearts and Headstones

LA Times, February 14, 2008. "Love stories buried no longer", by Erika Hayasaki

"Her body was buried with her second husband in another cemetery - but she had requested that her heart be removed and interred at Laurel Hill [Cemetery], alongside her first husband, Thomas Howard Peterson." (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/14/nation/na-love14)

Well. Not quite.

Mary C. Peterson is one of those burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery that shows up on tours for Halloween and St. Valentine's. A love story that has a gruesome twist.

Mary married her childhood sweetheart, T.  Howard Peterson, in the late 1870's. They tried desperately to have a family but the children she brought to term died very young.

 

These two small worn stones sit next to Mary's monument. I cannot confirm to you 100% that they are her children, but I imagine that it is so.

 In 1881, her doctors advised Mary and Howard that Mary, frail and grieving, should move to Atlantic City to take the sea air. Howard's publishing business was in Philadelphia, so he stayed there, but he visited his wife often. He was known to take long walks in the evening before retiring.

One night, he went out for his walk and never returned.

Months later, a decomposed body washed up on shore in Cape May, NJ. He was identified as Howard Peterson by his ring and his grandfather's watch. Newspaper stories of the time (copies of which are in the cemetery archives) insisted that he did not commit suicide but likely slipped in the ice and was drowned.

And of course, the love of his life was heartbroken.

Literally.

T. Howard Peterson, d. 1881

Mary did not remarry, as reported by the L.A. Times in 1908, but moved in with her parents who lived in North Philadelphia until her death on December 7, 1912.

Here's where things in the cemetery once again get weird.

The story I was told was that Mary requested upon her death that her heart be surgically removed and buried at Laurel Hill, next to her husband. The rest of her body was buried with her parents at their church in North Philly.

So of course, I just had to go into the archives and check it out for myself. 

And guess what!!! It's true!!

Each burial at Laurel Hill Cemetery has an interment slip in the files. It tells the name and date of death of the deceased, the name of who is responsible for the burial arrangements, and the location of the burial itself.

And right there, on the slip, was written "The heart of Mary C. Peterson". 

Monument of Mary C. Peterson's Heart

Even in death, she was devoted to the love of her life, Howard, and she insisted on her heart being interred next to him.

Happy Valentine's Day!