"Thank you so much for finding Hattie Abra's grave site. I have been trying to find out about her without any luck until recently when someone told me about Find A Grave. I'm saddened to find she only has a temporary headstone."

Nearly three years ago Eric and I started a project of listing the graves at Multnomah Park on the website Find A Grave.  We thought there were several thousand graves at the cemetery and frankly didn't know where the project would lead us, and really still don't know where the project will take us.  We don't know, or understand fully, what drives us to record the graves at The Park.  People wonder why we spend the time uncovering, cleaning and photographing markers and monuments for people we don't know and aren't related to; people who in life we may not have associated with or even liked.
But we both know that we feel 'called' to work on this project of recording their stories, for each person buried at The Park has a story that needs being told. 
Our efforts are appreciated.  That we know.  All you need to do is look at the many comments left by people on Find A Grave who appreciate the fact that we have taken the time to list a relative on Find A Grave. 
Part of the journey that this project is taking us on involves the history of Morningside Hospital at what is now Mall 205.  Why either one of us is interested in a mental hospital and it's story is a question.  Maybe the answer lies in the fact that both of us have relatives who were in mental hospitals at one time.  We don't know, but we do know that the stories of people sent from Alaska, prior to statehood, to Portland's Morningside Hospital touches a nerve with us.
As a result of our, and especially Eric's, interest in Morningside Hospital, Eric and I are travelling to Anchorage next week to meet up with some Alaskans who would like to know why two guys in Portland care about the Lost Alaskans.  The Lost Alaskans are people who were separated from their families for reasons as small as the fact that they were epileptic and sent from their villages in Alaska to spend the rest of their days in a foreign place.

David