Within seconds, my life had changed in ways I wouldn’t have imagined. I never did leave my hometown. I don’t know who the new Cuddy Mangum would have turned into, but probably not the...

Though much of Colón seems frozen in time in the 1950s, or before―like much of Cuba―it in fact remains very active as an ongoing final resting place for more than 800,000 souls and...

I relive this same sense of awe and terror whenever I lose a friend, a relative, or a friend of a relative to this day, or I become aware of a thunderstorm threatening, or, oddly, I fall...

Shed leaves are everywhere, numerous as souls of the dead. They tumble and plunge in the cold shallow river, hurrying on to the black deeps of the dammed lake at the end. Some ride

The grave was a charm or powerful talisman that controlled events in the spirit world (world of the dead), as well as the world of the living.

Each autumn, I make a solemn visit to a nearby churchyard, the Upper Bay Settlement Cemetery (est. 1853). The grounds are tucked behind the white clapboard church which has been unused for...

Luckily, my easiest conversation starter is something I genuinely wonder about: what inspired you, in a city known for its nightlife, to set an alarm, ooze out of bed, and visit a cemetery?

I, clearly, am not a sensitive and would be oblivious to a ghost walking through me. But my writing buddy is pretty freaked by the tree, and our guide mentions it’s her least favorite...

If they died, where could they be buried? Being so few in number, they could not afford to finance a cemetery for Chinese only.

I felt the sorrow of the long life that had left us and I felt the hope and innocence of my child next to me as we lay still and in admiration.