Home Repairs
Shanna Riley April 4th, 2007
Rosedale Cemetery, the site of a recent graving trip, has a set of large, brick family tombs that I noticed had been renovated in the not so distant past.
Fresh paint - including bright colors - adorned the once crumbling and blackened brick of the two-level vaulted tombs. It was work that had likely taken some time to complete.
The repairs were not professionally done, as is obvious, yet the graves look considerably better than they previously had - and, most importantly - the names and dates are now easily readable.
The tombs belong to the Scardino Family - immigrants from Italy who settled in the area; quite a bit of history is interred in these brick graves.
The large brick tombs - each nearly six feet in height - hold two shelves each, though there are seven of the Scardino family buried within (how this done is another post). The Scardino family has many stories to tell, as evidenced by the markers of their final resting place.
There is Antonia Purpa Scardino, born in 1872 - the matriarch of this family - who originally came from Poggioreale, Italy, and is the only female buried here. Her husband, born in 1862, Frank Sardino, hails from Salaparota, Italy. I believe the rest are their children, most of whom seem to have done quite well for themselves.
There is the father's namesake, Frank, who is listed as a New Orleans business owner. His older brother, Anthony was a WWI veteran, and brother Joseph was a merchant and one time mayor of Rosedale itself.
Two tragedies, however, befell the Scardino family in the midst of their good fortune it would seem - both of them occurring in the year 1918. Son Sarfino was "killed in action" at Morgan Hill, France during WWI; he was only twenty-two years of age. Another son, Leon, died at the age of eighteen; cause unknown.
The family burial site tells a lively tale of Italian immigrants making their way in the New World; a story that might never have been heard if some decades-distant descendant had not taken the time to mend the deteriorating graves.
To see the transformation for yourself: View the old grave look (from LA Cemeteries, taken by unknown) and the new grave look (from Find A Grave, taken by me).
